Peg Brickley

Al Jazeera America is trying to avoid unsealing a lawsuit it filed in 2013 accusing AT&T of improperly keeping the news channel off AT&T's U-verse cable-television lineup.

Al Jazeera got into the US cable market by acquiring Al Gore's Current TV. But AT&T refused to give space to the US version of the Qatar-based channel on U-verse, although it had carried Current TV. Each side said the other breached the affiliation agreement that governs their relationship, but the details on how aren't known because much of the case is under seal.

After being ordered to unseal the complaint, Al Jazeera said it would drop the case, wiping the public record clean of the lawsuit. Journalists, including a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, objected to the sealing.