Marwan Bishara

As a news organisation, we are not in search of neutrality. Rather, objectivity. In other words, we would expose the facts regardless of how any which party is affected - or how we might be perceived. In Egypt, there have been some dramatic shifts and twists over the last three years which we have tried to cover to the best of our abilities. That does not mean mistakes have not been made. After all, we are a news organisation that broadcasts 24/7. On the overall, our coverage has been sound but that doesn't mean we have been popular among certain Egyptians or other viewers.

Hard work, consistency, passion without emotions. More concretely, try to forget a lot of what you learned in school and be open for whatever comes your way in whatever role you take on.

Journalism schools are good for basic techniques. What you need is capacity and talent for writing and the pursuit of truth through the search for verifiable facts.

my email was part of the internal discussions we often have at aljazeera- to its credit. The fact it was leaked made it seem like it's the whole story, it is not. We continue to have these discussions as we must and aljazeera is stronger and better because of it. Aljazeera is a living organ that continues to evolve thanks to its incredible staff and ambitious journalistic agenda, nothing personal there.

Time to downsize the empire... better to do some reconstruction at home than wars abroad. The US has great soft power in its arsenal. Afghanistan might humiliate the pentagon, but no one has taken on Mickey Mouse yet...

Democracy is the rule of the democratic values, not simply the rule of the majority. For that it's indispensable to groom a new generation of democrats within a civic state where the rights of the individual and the rights of minorities are protected by the majority.

It's more of an occupation than a mere conflict or war. And it is the nature of the occupation that breeds tensions, conflict, and violence. That's why de-occupying Palestine will most probably lead to stability and eventually peace between the two peoples. Otherwise, if the military - and more importantly, civilian - occupation continue, Israel and Palestine will face a South Africa-like scenario, where the two peoples would have to live in one state. Already, the farthest distance between any Palestinian and Israeli is no more than a kilometres. In other words, unless they separate today, they will have to integrate tomorrow.

1) Yes, and we've done so in the past regarding labour issues, negligence in the workplace, and environmental issues. 2) Probably in the future. 3) Al Jazeera is not in the business of promoting democracy anywhere. We are in journalism. We are not on a mission.

Many are fascinated by it, and admire its liberties and its standard of living, social mobility and liberty. Others are not impressed by its inflated consumerism and emphasize its wrong headed foreign policies and its military adventures and failures. There are all sorts...

There are major differences... we are not commercial, not yet any way. And many of the decisions are taken on purely journalistic considerations, not commercial ones.

More importantly, most of the major or what you refer to as mainstream satellite networks are based in the world centers of power, whether in the US, Europe etc. Al Jazeera doesn't speak the language of power, it's the only one that speaks a truly international language that includes different accents, nationalities and ethnicities with no geopolitical agenda, program or culture of any sort.

It's great for Al Jazeera. We are in the process of conquering new satellite frontiers, by putting journalism back in television and the media. Western networks are the losers thus far.