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Letter to the President of AlJazeera America ... September 26, 2013

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Letter to the President of AlJazeera America ... September 26, 2013

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September 26, 2013

Mr Ali Velshi
President
AlJazeera America
New York NY

Dear Mr. Velshi

Your moderation of the ATA African Tourism Day event at NYU Africa House on Thursday, September 26, was brilliant, and for that, thank you very much.

At the event, I took the opportunity to alert you to my frustration with the current state of affairs where everything to do with the AlJazeera English (AJE) website is blocked by virtue of our location in the United States. I have been a follower of AJE for a long time, and periodicaly a viewer contributor to The Stream!

AJE is a fantastic source of material about the world … arguably the best in the world, and I am more than a little annoyed that I am now no longer able to access any of this material.

I understand that there could be objection to a live stream of AJE into the USA, but blocking ALL ACCESS to AJE material, current and archive, is more than I can comprehend. I am disgusted.

To add to my disgust, it also appears that all of the AJE material that is on YouTube is also blocked, as well as material that over a period of now several years I have 'embedded' on my website.

So, to conclude, I go from being a super advocate for AlJazeera English to someone who now wishes that the idea of AlJazeera America had never been conceived.

I have had some communication with AlJazeera America staff already on this issue, and I want to say that they have been as understanding and as helpful as they were able … but they are limited in what they can do. I refer to both email communications and a personal visit I made to the New York office.

Now the question is what will happen going forward? As things stand at the present my interest is best protection by a situation where AlJazeera America closes down and we go back to the AlJazeera English model where there is Internet live streaming and access to AJE archive material. Compared to what is offered on US cable and networks, AJ America is way better … but compared to the AJ English offerings it has a long way to go (normal, I would argue, for an initiative at this stage of launching.)

But it is worse. I am located in Bushkill PA (ZIP 18324) with a local cable distributor called Blue Ridge Communications. I expect it will be a very long time (if ever) before they get to have AJ America in their basic bundle.

Bluntly put … I want to have access to the AJ English archive again. Not having live stream I can handle … but I don't want to be bundled into information oblivion as a result of the launching of AlJazeera America.

Sincerely

Peter Burgess
email: peterbnyc@gmail.com
skype: peterburgessnyc
web: http://truevaluemetrics.org
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