'Al-Jazeera will never change its editorial line,' said Wadah Khanfar, managing director of the controversial Arabic satellite broadcaster. 'Our staff have often been the victims of dictatorial regimes. Some have come from national news services where they were forced to make every headline something about 'His Majesty' or 'His Excellency'. Since we started broadcasting, Arab journalism has changed, and we will not give in to intimidation now.'
Mr Khanfar spoke to the South China Morning Post while he was in Britain to investigate claims that US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair discussed the possibility of bombing the Arabic broadcaster last year. A British newspaper published the account of an unnamed government official, alleging that Mr Bush suggested bombing the channel but was dissuaded by Mr Blair.
US officials have long objected to Al-Jazeera's coverage of conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories. Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, described Al-Jazeera's reports on the US siege of Fallujah as 'Vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable'.
At least Al-Jazeera manages to offend all sides equally. This month, its reporters have been arrested in both Egypt and Israel. According to reports by the channel and the International Committee To Protect Journalists, Egyptian security forces detained an Al-Jazeera cameraman and destroyed his camera and tapes after he had filmed events at a polling station on December 1 (Egypt's latest parliamentary elections were marred by violence).
On the same day, Israel detained an Al-Jazeera reporter in the West Bank without explanation.
The station is accustomed to such criticism, which has not stopped it attracting 50 million regular viewers. It was recently voted one of the top five brands in the world, and is soon to launch an editorially independent English-language channel, Al-Jazeera International. But tensions with the US have reached a new high since the Bush bomb-threat allegations emerged.