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 Urdu time. It would have been the first Al Jazeera news channel with a partnership and therefore not totally controlled by Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera Urdu Al Jazeera Urdu (Arabic: الجزيرة أردو, Urdu: الجزیرہ اردو) was a 24-hour news channel announced by Al Jazeera in 2006. It would have been an Urdu language version catering mainly to India, offered as part of the Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel has yet to be launched in spite of rapid expansion of the Al Jazeera Network, four other news channels Al Jazeera English launched in 2006, Al Jazeera Balkans launched in 2011, Al Jazeera