Al Jazeera 500 million Qatari riyals (US$137 million) from the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa. By securing its funding through loans or grants rather than direct government subsidies, the channel seeks to maintain independent editorial policy. The channel began broadcasting in late 1996, with many staff joining from the BBC World Service's Saudi-co-owned Arabic-language TV station, which had shut down on 1 April 1996 after two years of operation because of censorship demands by the Saudi Arabian government. The Al Jazeera logo is a decorative representation of the network's name written using Arabic calligraphy. It was selected by the station's
Al Jazeera it as "serving Zionism". Several Al Jazeera staff were killed by U.S. Military "friendly-fire" incidents. The United States controlled Iraqi interim government closed the offices of Al Jazeera in Baghdad in August 2004 during the United States occupation on Iraq. Then United States appointed Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi accused the channel of "inciting hatred" in the country. At the end of April 2013, the Iraqi government led by Nouri Al Maliki once again ordered Al Jazeera to stop broadcasting due to the alleged role of the channel in "encouraging the sectarian unrest". In response to the restrictions imposed by