The much-awaited Al Jazeera International Channel (AJI) - with Kuala Lumpur being one of its four regional broadcast centres - is expected to hit the airwaves in May.

"We are aiming for the end of May," said Veronica Pedrosa, the channel's Malaysia-based principal news anchor.

She was speaking at the first Asian New Media Forum in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The 24-hour news and current affairs channel is the first English language international network based in the Middle East and will operate separately from its popular sister channel the Al Jazeera Arabic version.

Its other regional broadcast centres are in Doha (headquarters), London and Washington DC.

Pedrosa said Kuala Lumpur was chosen due to its strategic location between Sydney and Beijing, where there is a high number of English-educated people.

No restrictions

Responding to a question, she denied that the Malaysian government had imposed any restrictions or conditions on the channel to operate from here.

"Not at all. In fact, we were given incentives, we were given the MSC (multimedia super corridor) status," said the award-winning journalist, who has worked for the BBC and CNN .

She added that AJI news would not broadcast directly from Kuala Lumpur but the news will be sent back to the headquarters in Doha first and then be broadcast to the world.

According to Pedrosa, the channel will provide audience with a '360 degree perspective' on world events but will not compromise on accuracy, editorial independence and objectivity.

"AJI will be considered a competitor for CNN International and BBC World but we actually don't think we have any direct competitors. We are the first English language global television network based in the Middle East.

"We are unique, the first of its kind. And we take pride in being based in the groundbreaking free press environment of the Arab world and we will utilise our position and vast global resources to present a unique all round view of regional and global events," she added.

Pedrosa was one of the five speakers at a panel discussion titled 'New Media and Press Freedom'. The other speakers were Asian Media and Information Centre secretary-general Dr Indrajit Banerjee, Malaysian blogger Jeff Ooi and Hong Kong University academic Andrew Lih.

Learning experience

The two-day forum, which ends today, was attended by 50 participants from leading 'new media' organisations, academics and non-governmental representatives.

The forum was jointly organised by online daily malaysiakini , the Southeast Asian Centre for E-media and Dutch-media foundation FreeVoice.

Malaysiakini chief-executive-officer Premesh Chandran said it was an unprecedented forum that brought together the new media.

"It's a good time to share and discuss. It's time to look at how these media are changing," he said when met at the sidelines

Chandran was delighted with the response to the forum, with the participation of top media organisations such as Inter Press Service (IPS) and Al Jazeera .

He said participants will use the opportunity to learn from each other and discuss problems faced by the new media.