Growing anecdotal evidence of AJE‘s popularity in Pakistan from The Nation. Worth reading in full:

Al Jazeera gaining viewership
Faheem Raza

KARACHI – The Doha-based Al Jazeera TV is fast replacing the western channels such as the BBC and the CNN as a source of information and is in great demand in interior Sindh, Karachi and other cities, The Nation survey has revealed.

According to TV cable operators in Defence, Clifton, PECCHS, Tariq Road, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, North Nazimabad, Liquatabad and Gulistan-e-Johar, the Al Jazeera channel’s English news service has relegated western satellite news channels to secondary places.

One of the leading TV cable operators in a posh area said that a large number of subscribers called them up, demanding that they show Al Jazeera transmission when the channel launched its English news service.

Earlier, the Islamic Peace TV was the most sought after channel among local residents, he added. He said that a majority of subscribers preferred the CNN and the BBC for news coverage but now these subscribers, particularly those in Defence and Clifton, were moving to Al Jazeera.

Prof Dr Talat Wazarat, the chairperson of the Department of International Relations, the Karachi University, said that a major reason of the sudden increase in the viewer ship of Al Jazeera was the credibility of news and sources. She observed that foreign television channels often quoted news from Al Jazeera Arabic channel which had enhance the credibility of the Doha-based channel. The London and Atlanta-based channels were thoroughly exposed for their biased reporting of 9/11 and coverage of recent events in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestinian, she said. The recent Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon also highlighted the biased world-view of the western news sources. These news channels imposed self-censorship and aired only one-sided interpretation of the events. She said that Al Jazeera’s programmes were more balanced and informative than those of the western news channels.

Dr Aftab, a resident of the DHA, Phase V, said that he had been a viewer of the BBC for more than 20 years but now he had switched to Al Jazeera. “Its reporting is balanced and no one can prove that they are following specific agendas like most of the foreign news channels,” he said.

Erum Batool, another resident of the DHA, said that “it was the need of the hour that an English news channel representing the point of view of Muslims filled the existing vacuum”. She said that the channel “countered the anti-Islam propaganda of the western governments especially the neo-conservative US administration during recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq”. She said that the recent conflict in Lebanon also exposed the foreign news channels even though they were generally considered independent and objective. She said that Riz Khan’s programme and the Inside Story aired by a foreign news channel were authentic and objective.

Abid Kalwar, a net and TV cable dealer in Gulistan-e-Johar, one of the most densely populated areas in the metropolis, said that they had received thousands of requests to air Al Jazeera not only from conservative Muslims but also from moderates. The channel had attracted enormous viewership with its launch, he added.

Mudassar Jalal, a resident of North Nazimabad who works for an NGO, said that Al Jazeera had brought a revolution in journalism because of its objective coverage of conflicts and the debate as to who will be the next Democrat candidate for 2008 US presidential election. He said that his mother, a retired teacher, and his family members preferred watching Al Jazeera to get latest updates on international and regional politics. The channel is also popular among foreign students who are studying at the Karachi University, the Sindh University and medical universities.

Tariq Ali, a resident of Boat Basin Clifton who works for the Sindh government and is currently preparing for the Central Superior Services examinations, said that he had quit watching BBC after the launch of Al Jazeera English TV Channel. Sana, a student of the Karachi University, said that she watched English news TV channel regularly and now preferred watching Al Jazeera due to its objective reporting of international and regional issues. Salma Jaffrey, a student of the Mass Communication Department at a private university, said that he always thought that Al Jazeera was a conservative television channel but after watching its programmes her opinion had changed and she had found it to be objective and balanced.

Amazing, considering its produced by exactly the same people who once brought them BBC, Sky News and CNN…