Al Jazeera slams Gore lawsuit

Qatar’s Al Jazeera has labelled the lawsuit from former US vice president Al Gore over the purchase of his Current TV channel a “sham.”

Al Jazeera Media Network acquired seven-year-old Current TV in January 2013 to provide a launch base for its news and documentary channel Al Jazeera America.

The deal was estimated to be worth US$500m at the time and provided Al Jazeera with a footprint of more than 40 million US households, up from the 4.7 million that the existing Al Jazeera channel had prior to the deal.

However Gore, and other former shareholders in Current including former CEO Joel Hyatt, took legal action last month against Al Jazeera America saying it is trying to hold back US$65m of the purchase price.

But now a counterclaim by Al Jazeera, which has been filed at a court in Delaware, has stated that it had been agreed that the funds would be held back to deal with potential problems over channel carriage.

Al Jazeera went on to encounter such problems with Time Warner Cable and AT&T for the carriage of its network, which has struggled for ratings since launching in the US a year ago,

Al Jazeera said in a statement that it wants the court to throw out the “meritless claims and award damages to Al Jazeera America,” going on to slam the lawsuit as a way “to grab headlines.” It added that the 143-page filing was “rambling” and “largely incomprehensible.”

David Boies, attorney for Gore and Hyatt, refuted the claims, adding that its complaint “explains how Al Jazeera improperly tried to use our escrow funds to pay the distributors that it wants to carry its channel in the US.

“After trying to block our clients’ request that their entire complaint be made public, Al Jazeera has now responded by making false claims to defend its behaviour.”