Al Jazeera controversies and criticism that he recognizes Iran as Islamic regional power and criticizes Saudi and Trump's policy toward Iran. He also praised Lebanese organization Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas. However, Qatar denied such reports and said QNA was allegedly hacked and they are still investigating the issue. In January 2009 Al Jazeera aired a documentary on toxic waste dumped in Somalia. A Somali journalist who studied the contents of the two-part Al Jazeera documentary, "The Toxic Truth", has concluded that Al Jazeera failed to rigorously research the story because one of the letters used to substantiate arms smuggling was issued on 15
Al Jazeera was Al Jazeera's first day of 24-hour broadcasting. Employment had more than tripled in one year to 500 employees, and the agency had bureaus at a dozen sites as far as EU and Russia. Its annual budget was estimated at about $25 million at the time. However controversial, Al Jazeera was rapidly becoming one of the most influential news agencies in the whole region. Eager for news beyond the official versions of events, Arabs became dedicated viewers. A 2000 estimate pegged nightly viewership at 35 million, ranking Al Jazeera first in the Arab world, over the Saudi Arabia-sponsored Middle East