Broadcaster Gives American Outlet To Al-Jazeera

NEW YORK (AP) - Link TV is giving Qatar-based Al-Jazeera English a long-sought American television audience during the political turmoil in Egypt.

Link says it is simulcasting about 12 hours a day of live Al-Jazeera. Its in-depth coverage of the protests has won praise from journalists and hostility from Egyptian authorities, who closed the channel's Cairo office and detained six journalists in their hotels.

Link TV spokeswoman Julia Pacetti said Wednesday that the network felt it was important to see a perspective on Egypt's crisis not filtered through Western eyes.

Al-Jazeera has been frustrated for years in its effort to be carried on U.S. cable or satellite systems. Link is available on DirecTV and the Dish satellite systems and cable systems totaling 33 million of the nation's nearly 116 million homes with televisions.