Al Jazeera Balkans is “Muslim" television". He concludes by saying that Al Jazeera's Arabic service played a key role in the Arab Spring and wonders "what sort of influence Qatar may want, or gain, in the Balkans". Writing in his blog on "The Weekly Standard" web site, Stephen Schwartz sees Al Jazeera Balkans (AJB) as "the revival of a “Yugoslav" television network", bringing up AJB news director Goran Milić's past affiliation with "Yutel", "a network that attempted to rescue Yugoslavia during its collapse, from 1990 to 1992". Schwartz concludes that "in entering the Balkans, Al Jazeera has opted for an attempted revival of
Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival social phenomena with a focus on universal human values such as courage, truth, justice, tolerance and cosmopolitism." The festival's official competition selection for the 2018 edition consisted of 15 international documentaries adapted for TV broadcasting. The non-competition selection, known as "Last Minute Cinema", consisted of five acclaimed international documentaries. All selected films are considered for acquisition by Al Jazeera Balkans and its sister channel, Al Jazeera English, and will subsequently be screened on television. The selections will be finalized in June. The AJB DOC Festival, in cooperation with the Al Jazeera Media Network, holds a multi-day documentary workshop for authors,