Al Jazeera soon in Belgrade - Arabian network implements EUR 50 million project in the Balkans

Al Jazeera, a global television network, will open its TV studios in Belgrade, Zagreb, Skopje, while the TV center for the Balkans will be situated in Sarajevo.

Pan-Arabian network, which has 70 bureaus all around the world, will have correspondents from Berlin, Moscow, Washington, Istanbul, London, Brussels, and it will be using the capacities of the entire network.

People at Al Jazeera hope to bring this region closer to the world, as well as global events closer to the public in the region. Al Jazeera Balkans, as they say, is not conceived as a local television, but as a regional project with global potentials, meaning that they do not intend to compete with local TV stations.

The fact that about EUR 20 million will be invested in the first phase of the project and that the total value of the final Al Jazeera Balkans project should amount to about EUR 50 million clearly shows it is a capital investment and one of the largest and most significant of the kind in Bosnia and Herzegovina lately.

Al Jazeera Balkans Director General Tarik Djodjic spoke about this and future plans for the project in an interview for InfoKom.

- Al Jazeera will be using the state-of-the-arts equipment. I must underline that this is an international project that involves renowned companies from Europe and that we will most certainly be an absolute technological leader in this part of the world. In the starting phase, the amount of investment should exceed EUR 20 million. We hope it is only the beginning of even larger investment cycle whose value, in the end, may exceed the amount of KM 100 million (EUR 50 million) - said Djodjic.

Job opportunity

Al Jazeera Balkans Director General pointed out that the company would offer its journalists top technology and various benefits: up-to-date equipment, training, work for a prestigious global TV network, opportunity to advance in career and work by the highest standards of unbiased journalism.

- I think these are the terms that a journalist in the region can only wish for. As always, in order for any project to be successful, human factor is decisive. I honestly hope that the combination of human talent, which definitely exists in our country and the region, and Al Jazeera's standards of top journalism will give a good product that will justify expectations of the public, which are quite big, judging by the information I have. Construction of TV studios will commence in few days - Djodjic stated.