What is Empire?

Empire is a unique programme that reports on and debates global powers on behalf of an international citizen. It does so in a way whereby it questions those geopolitical, geoeconomic, corporate, and other forms of power that influence citizens across borders.

Many of those are not held accountable by any one government or any one nation, and so looking at the world as the global village it has become – with its integrated societies – we try to answer the questions on the minds of many of our viewers: why and how does global power act, react? And how does it throw its weight around?

What makes Empire different?

Most western or English-speaking global networks represent one power or another. Russia Today, France 24, BBC, CNN, so on and so forth, they all speak the language of power. They all come from centres of power and reflect the nature of power on those capitals, whereas at Al Jazeera and at Empire , we are at the receiving end of power. Hence, our questions are the exact opposite of the ones that you tend to hear on those other networks.

We are far more bold, far more daring, and far less censored in the way we tackle some of the questions that most global networks ignore. And we do so on behalf of a global citizenship because we live in a world where the fourth estate is the satellite television.

Our new home

The fourth estate must question and probe the main global powers – and we do it mostly from New York City, our new home base. Why? Because it is one of the leading centres of power. In addition to representing one of the most important powers around the world, the US, the city is also home to a huge reservoir of intellect and intellectuals. Hence it is here that we bring our reports and analysis, and the voices from across the globe, to try and understand how global powers act and how they exercise their influence, thus holding them accountable to our viewers.