American Anchor Steps Down at Al Jazeera English

WASHINGTON, D.C., March
28: David Marash, a leading American anchor on Al Jazeera English, has left the
international news network, according to the New York Times, citing concerns about the level of editorial
control exerted from the Doha, Qatar, headquarters.

“To put it bluntly, the
channel that’s on now—while excellent, and I plan to be a lifetime
viewer—is not the channel that I signed up to do,” Marash, a former
correspondent for ABC’s Nightline,
told the Times.

Marash’s two-year contract
at the network saw him anchoring newscasts from Washington, D.C. for the global
network, which also operates bureaus in Kuala Lumpur and London, as well as in
Doha, where its parent, the Middle Eastern news network Al Jazeera, is based.
The English network reaches more than 100 million homes worldwide but has
struggled to crack the U.S. market.

Marash told the Times that editorial control for the international
bureaus has been diminished since he started at the network. “They started
covering the whole world very well, but from the point of view and the
interests of Doha and the surrounding region,” he said. He also noted concerns
about anti-American sensibilities in the coverage.

News of Marash’s exit
follows a report in The Guardian
earlier this week that 15 staffers have left the network over the past few
months “amid complaints of a lack of clarity over its direction, contractual
disputes and speculation over a relaunch later this year.”

—By Mansha Daswani