Al Jazeera controversies and criticism United States Department of State internal communications, released by WikiLeaks as part of the 2010 diplomatic cables leak, claim that the Qatar government manipulates Al Jazeera coverage to suit political interests. Al Jazeera's Shia Beirut correspondent Ali Hashem resigned from Al Jazeera after leaked e-mails shows his discontent over the outlet's "unprofessional" and biased coverage of the Syrian civil war in light of the Bahraini protests of 2011, which was not given the prominence of the Syrian conflict on the network, one side of the conflict which was partly funded by the state of Qatar, who also fund Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera and influence, some scholars including Adel Iskandar have described the station as a transformation of the very definition of "alternative media." Al Jazeera presents a new direction in the discourse of global news flow and shows voices underrepresented by traditional mainstream media regardless global imbalances in the flow of information. In 2011 Al Jazeera Media Network launched Al Jazeera Balkans based in Sarajevo and serving Bosnia and Herzegovina in Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian. The look and feel of the network is similar to Al Jazeera English. Al Jazeera launched a Turkish-language news website in 2014; it was shut down on