Ibrahim Helal, chief editor at Al Jazeera television, is little older than most of his staff but, at 32, he heads what has become one of the best-known news organisations in the world.
Two months ago, few in the West had heard of Al Jazeera, which operates from cramped, heavily fortified studios on the outskirts of the Qatari capital, Doha. But when the station started broadcasting video statements by Osama bin Laden and became the only foreign network to broadcast from inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, its name became familiar throughout the world.
"We have been in Afghanistan since early 2000 and because we had the only satellite uplink that was working, we were the only network reporting the arrest of Christians in Afghanistan before the present conflict began. We were the only window open from Afghanistan to the whole world," Mr Helal said.
He maintains that the main reason al Qaeda chose Al Jazeera to broadcast bin Laden's statements was that it was more practical to deliver videos to the station's Kabul office than to transport them outside the country.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, and Britain's Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, have criticised Al Jazeera for broadcasting the statements without critical commentary. But Mr Helal, who trained and worked with the BBC before joining Al Jazeera, claims that the station was simply being even-handed and impartial.
"We didn't change our policy. It's the one we learnt from the West. That's to have people from every angle. He has a right to express his point of view and others have a right to hear it."
Pressure from governments is nothing new to Mr Helal. Although Al Jazeera has 15 million viewers a day in the Arab world, it is an irritant to many autocratic regimes in the region. Many of its 38 correspondents in 25 countries have been harassed by officials or had tapes confiscated, and the Emir of Qatar has come under pressure from his neighbours to close the station down.
"We don't care about what governments think about us. The reputation we have got since we started broadcasting in 1996 is more important than the views of governments. People know we are an independent, reliable source of first-hand news in Arabic."
The Qatari government, which owns half of Al Jazeera, has never attempted to influence the station's output, but informs the editors of complaints from foreign governments. Mr Helal maintains that the media landscape in the Arab world has been changing since the Gulf War and that Qatar has been one of the first countries to understand how far-reaching the changes will be. By next year, Al Jazeera hopes to broadcast two hours a day in English.
