Calgarians who subscribe to Bell will now be able to get a Middle Eastern perspective on their televisions.
Al Jazeera, an international news agency based in Doha, Qatar, just gained permission from the CRTC to broadcast in Canada.
The network will be broadcast on Bell (channel 516), Rogers and Videotron in Canada but not on Calgary-based Shaw Cable, which could not be reached for comment.
One prominent Muslim Calgarian is worried the channel will not give an accurate picture of the Muslim community.
“I don’t expect a lot of Muslims to watch it,” said Mahfooz Kanwar, a Calgary-based member of the Muslim Canadian Congress.
He said he believes the network, which has run tapes from Osama bin Laden in the past, gives a voice to a radical faction of Islam he said most of Canada’s 700,000 Muslims do not support.
He said that he expects the Canadian version of Al Jazeera to be more moderate because of Canada’s rules and regulations on broadcasting.
