A tipster writes to TVNewser:

"Al Jazeera infighting has resulted in yet another setback for the soon-to-launch English-language Al Jazeera International (AJI) network. The top boss of the Arabic-language Al Jazeera news net and all sister Al Jazeera networks has nixed AJI's plans to establish a Baghdad bureau, saying AJI must keep a united front with its Arabic-language parent news network, whose Baghdad bureau remains shuttered after the Iraqi government banned Al Jazeera from reporting from Iraq in August 2004.

The Al Jazeera networks' united stand: either the Iraqi authorities permit Al Jazeera's Arabic-language network to re-establish its Baghdad bureau or AJI will reverse plans to open a bureau of its own in the Iraqi capital. This is a big setback for AJI, whose executives and emissaries fought hard -- and successfully -- to convince Iraqi officials to permit AJI to have a Baghdad bureau. Now that determined AJI lobbying effort appears to be for naught because of a veto by Al Jazeera Arabic."

The tipster concludes by asking: "Can AJI be deemed well-sourced and credible among English speakers in its coverage of Iraq if AJI opts against having a Baghdad bureau and bans itself from on-site staff coverage of Iraq?"