The network went on air with an hour-long news programme consisting of live reports by its correspondents in Zagreb, Belgrade and Skopje, and news from different parts of the world.

After preparations that lasted several months, the regional branch of the Qatar television company is ready to produce six hours of daily programming, focusing mostly on news.

The rest of the programmes will be documentaries produced by the Al Jazeera network.

"To us, any information that is relevant to any of the countries covered by the network is important, but it also has to be interesting to people in other countries in the region," news director Goran Milic said.

There are no restrictions at Al Jazeera Balkans regarding the languages used in the countries where the network airs its programmes. Reporters are free to use their own mother tongue, whether it be Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian or Montenegrin.