Doha — A delegation from Iran’s Tehran Times and Mehr Media Group visited Al Jazeera Media Network’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday, engaging in discussions on collaborative journalism and the critical role of media in exposing the Israeli regime’s genocidal crimes in Gaza and across West Asia.

The delegation’s visit, marking the second such trip since November 2024, provided an in-depth look at Al Jazeera’s newsrooms, editorial workflows, and production studios. 

Mehr Media Group, one of Iran’s primary media outlets, includes the country’s leading international daily newspaper, the Tehran Times, alongside Mehr News Agency.  

The group traces its origins back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution and operates offices in all 31 provinces of Iran, as well as in several neighboring states. 

Al Jazeera Media Network, a key player in the regional media landscape, operates a diverse range of news and broadcast channels, including its flagship Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English.  

Founded in 1996, the network is headquartered in Qatar and maintains a presence across West Asia and beyond, delivering coverage on global and regional affairs through its various platforms. 

Delegates from the Tehran Times outlined their coverage of anti-Zionist perspectives worldwide, citing the newspaper’s founding principle set by Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad-Hossein Beheshti in 1979: "The Tehran Times is a loud voice of the Islamic Revolution and the oppressed people of the world." 

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera staff detailed their heightened focus on Gaza and the Palestinian cause. 

Al-Aqsa Storm: A turning point for Al Jazeera 

The visit highlighted Al Jazeera’s dramatic shift in coverage following Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, the Palestinian Resistance’s operation against the Israeli regime on October 7th, 2023. 

Staff revealed that routine programming was halted to prioritize real-time reporting from Gaza. 

“Since October 7th, we’ve stopped our usual programming,” one Al Jazeera journalist told the Tehran Times. 

Popular morning shows, including one produced in “Studio 14,” were suspended, with resources redirected to chronicling Tel Aviv's military atrocities.  

The Iranian delegation was also briefed on increased Israeli pressure on the network, including office closures and restricted journalist access to conflict zones. 

In May 2024, the regime shut down Al Jazeera’s office in the Occupied West Bank, citing “biased reporting,” while journalists in Gaza continue to face grave dangers—an unmistakable attempt to silence Palestinian voices 

The Bronze Tree of Martyrs 

In Al Jazeera’s courtyard, a striking bronze tree stands as a testament to journalists killed in conflict zones. 

Every leaf bears the name of a journalist who was killed while reporting from the frontlines, covering conflicts from the U.S. invasion of Iraq to Israel’s war on Gaza. 

Since 2003, 18 Al Jazeera journalists have lost their lives in the line of duty, including Tareq Ayyoub, who was killed in Baghdad when a U.S. ground attack aircraft fired missiles at the network’s headquarters in April 2003. 

More recently, Hossam Shabat was killed in March 2024 by an Israeli airstrike, after the regime broke the January ceasefire and resumed its assault on Gaza’s population.

Shabat is one of at least 232 journalists and media workers killed by Israel over the past 18 months. 

“They are our fallen heroes,” an Al Jazeera staffer explained. “We etched their names to show they’re still with us—martyred while pursuing truth.” 

The memorial deeply resonated with Iranian delegates, who recalled their own martyred journalists, including Mahmoud Saremi—executed by terrorists in Afghanistan in 1998 and honored annually on Iran’s Journalist Day—and Mohsen Khazaei, who was martyred in 2016 by shrapnel from a mortar explosion fired by Takfiri terrorists in Aleppo, Syria. 

Additionally, Tehran Times representatives honored the late Iranian journalist Mohammad-Hossein Navab, martyred during the Bosnian War by extremist Bosnian Croat forces. 

His story drew particular interest from an Al Jazeera staff member, given the Qatari media network’s operation of Al Jazeera Balkans (AJB), a sister channel based in Sarajevo. 

The Iranian delegation also paid tribute to Al Jazeera’s fallen reporters, emphasizing the lasting significance of their sacrifice. 

"The truth cannot be bombed into silence,” declared a Tehran Times representative to his Qatari counterpart, commending the unwavering courage of journalists who risk their lives to expose Israeli aggression. 

Shireen Abu Akleh: an icon of journalistic integrity 

Among the names on Al Jazeera's Bronze Tree of Martyrs is Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American correspondent killed by Israeli regime’s forces in May 2022 while reporting in Jenin. 

Wearing a press vest, she was struck by a sniper bullet during a raid—an act widely condemned as deliberate.  

“Shireen has become a global symbol of journalistic integrity,” an Al Jazeera representative stated. 

"We call on the world to remember her not just as a reporter, but as a mother and a human being with a radiant soul." 

The network’s ongoing “Justice for Shireen” campaign, spanning social media and grassroots activism, seeks accountability for her killing, reflecting Al Jazeera’s resolve to “carry her legacy of truth.”  

“Journalists are the eyes of humanity,” a Tehran Times representative stated. “Their sacrifice must never be forgotten.”