Al-Jazeera hit by advertising ban

The future of Al-Jazeera, the independent Arabic news service, is threatened by an advertising boycott created by political pressure within the Middle East.

The TV station, best known for broadcasting tapes of Osama bin Laden, is losing up to $30m (£19m) a year and is under pressure to find new sources of revenue.

Al-Jazeera was founded in 1996 with a $150m investment by the Emir of Qatar. He hoped the service would be self-funding by 2001 but it has missed that target and the emir has had to put another $30m of his own money into the venture.

Al-Jazeera's management blames its financial troubles on Arab governments who are unhappy with its uncensored coverage, which has seen it carry not only the Bin Laden tapes, but also interviews with Israeli ministers and Saudi Arabian dissidents and, last week, messages from the Chechen kidnappers in Moscow.

Al-Jazeera, which is broadcast via satellite, cannot be blocked but its journalists can be banned, as Jordan, Kuwait, Iran and the Palestinian Authority have done. Economic pressure is also being brought to bear, largely from Saudi Arabia.

"A lot of companies are instructed not to advertise on Al-Jazeera," claims Ali Mohammed Kamal, the station's marketing director. "We could have had double the revenue we have now."

Mr Kamal said Al-Jazeera was operating on a year-by-year basis and must agree a fresh budget with the Emir of Qatar if it is to continue.