Visit to Al-Jazeera English

Assalamu'alaykum,

Masha Allah! I am overexcited right now. This unstoppable irrepressible feeling of gleefulness has been waking my nerves all day long. Even I could not get a good sleep last night, imagining how would my visit to Al-Jazeera be. Well, the fact that I just got back from Al-Jazeera English Language headquarter in Doha, Qatar and I could not afford myself but to extoll the credibility and bizarre ability that Al-Jazeera possesses.

The straining hot sunlight greeted us at the front gate of Al-Jazeera's compound in Qatar. A normal weather that you should never feel obnoxious of but to adapt with it, cleverly. The place is highly secured with the policemen standing at the entrance gates safeguarding the place from any unfavorable events and the strict rules of admittance applied. In order for you to enter Al-Jazeera's compound, you need to have first the gate-pass and it is issued by one specific person who is holding one prestigious position that is permissible and capable of issuing doing so. If you are thinking that you can enter just like that without any paper work or at least purpose, you can just say goodbye because the cops would never let you in.

We arrived early and the taxi driver dropped us at the main entrance gate. I groped my pocket, reaching for my mobile phone and dialed Aunty Noraini's number, (my friend's relative) and she told me that our gate-pass has not been issued yet and as mentioned, we were prevented from entering the compound and cordially invited to have a seat with the policemen at their given designated room. Subhan Allah, they were really kindhearted and hospitable in the sense that they never under-appreciated us but to celebrate our coming to Qatar even though their hands were busy jotting down all those level one priority guests information entering and leaving the respected compound. They were Qatari, Yemeni and Sudanese and all of them were really friendly and unselfish. So, we talked about a lot of things while waiting our gate-pass to be issued and it drove we all the way from the police-post to the Musolla. We performed our Zuhr prayer with the policemen and I got a phone call right after I finished my prayer. It was Aunty Noraini and she told me that I could collect the gate-pass. At that very moment, my adrenaline pumped up rapidly as I could not longer wait to see Al-Jazeera crews.

She fetched us up at the Human Resource building after getting the gate-pass and drove us off to the Al-Jazeera English Channel Headquarter. While I was making my way through all the bulwarks, I tilted my head up and I saw Al-Jazeera's logo. It slacken my pace a bit but I managed to tame the ebullient. Hence, by the permission of the One Lord, we managed to enter the place and it knocked me off my feet when I saw spacious, glamorous and entrancing building with the prestigious logo Al-Jazeera nestling in front of me. I was stunned and captivated. We were told that we were not allowed to take any pictures inside.

- Right after we passed that door, we were not allowed to use mobile phone or camera-

Aunt Noraini brought us promenade around the studio; the powerful controlled sophisticated videos' rooms, well-designed offices, prestigious studios went on live broadcasting in front of us, the gallery room and the magnificent aesthetic lobbies. She explained to us that Al-Jazeera does not sell or buy news but they provide transparent, reliable and valid news, free from any lop-sided element, concordant to the facts. This was when my respect for Al-Jazeera grew taller and bigger. Al-Jazeera does not hire reporters, journalist as easy as that, they only take in the well-experienced and expert ones who are able to perform well at any given time to be part of the team. Not only that, the appointed ones must also have the unflagging strong determinant to endure the unexpected challenges and difficulties. They used to send only 2 people from Al-Jazeera to make a news coverage at the hazardous hills of Indonesia without any single problem hurled. Professionalism, that is all it takes. So, the basic things you need to have in your CV is that lines of experiences working with at least CNN or BBC and only then your CV will be reviewed or at least being put on the desk.

After for half an hour touring inside the building we went back home by taxi. We thanked aunty Noraini for granting us this definitely once in a lifetime's experience and surely it has benefited me in so many ways. I personally, had a wonderful inexpressible experience visit to Al-Jazeera.

I was really impressed, amazed and captivated witnessing all Al-Jazeera's live events took place, first hand. Alhamdulillah.

Well, I watched this live just now. (=

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