DOHA, Apr 2 (IPS) - The al-Jazeera television network could be emerging as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures on the channel, leading media figures say.
"I support al-Jazeera because al-Jazeera has done more to propagate democracy in the Middle East region than anybody else, certainly more than the American government has done," media specialist Hugh Miles told IPS. "It's strange to me that people refer to al-Jazeera as a 'terrorist network' because that couldn't be further from the truth."
Miles spoke to IPS at the third annual al-Jazeera forum at Doha in Qatar Mar. 31 to Apr. 2. The forum highlighted the successful recent expansion of the network while also addressing difficulties that reporters face in the Middle East hot spots.
Miles, author of 'Al Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World' and an award- winning freelance journalist said former U.S. defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld had got it wrong on al-Jazeera.
"Al-Jazeera has been called a 'terrorist network' or 'the voice of
(Osama) bin Laden', but this just demonstrates deep ignorance of its
history and the channel," Miles said.
The 10-year-old al-Jazeera network weathered a U.S. military attack on
its Baghdad office during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in April 2003.
It faced accusations from Rumsfeld that it promoted terrorism by airing
beheadings and other attacks.
Al-Jazeera editors say that the channel has never aired a beheading, nor does it support terrorism.
Other leading voices at the forum spoke in support of the channel, that
has been under frequent attack of all kinds. The forum, titled 'Media
and the Middle East: Going Beyond the Headlines' brought journalists,
international media leaders and scholars from around the world to
discuss critical issues facing the media, with a focus on in-depth
journalism.
The conference followed the launching of al-Jazeera English, a 24-hour
English-language news channel that went on air in November 2006 with
more than 80 million households viewing it worldwide -- an
unprecedented launch in the broadcast industry.
"There has been a four, five, six-year campaign against al-Jazeera,"
said Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of
Journalists at a panel discussion. "This is a prejudice we cannot
ignore."
Abdul Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based Arabic newspaper
al-Quds al- Arabi told IPS that "journalists should unite and raise our
voices to say no to this kind of brutal treatment by the leader of the
free world, by people who are representing freedom. We should stand
united against the new wave of embedded journalism because this is
censorship.
"Freedom of expression is said to be a part of Western values," Atwan
added. "The American administration is destroying Western values by
shooting journalists, by killing the messenger."
"The largest perpetrators of murdering journalists are governments,"
Frank Smyth, Washington representative of the Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) said at the forum.
Many other journalists are detained without fair trial. Al-Jazeera
cameraman Sami al-Hajj, a Sudanese national, was detained by the U.S.
military in Afghanistan in December 2001. He has yet to be charged, and
continues to be held as "enemy combatant" at Guantanamo Bay.
On Aug. 7, 2004, the U.S.-backed Iraqi interim government led by former
CIA asset Iyad Allawi shut down the Iraq office of al-Jazeera, claiming
that it was presenting a negative image of Iraq, and charging the
network with "fueling anti-coalition hostilities."
Much of the difficulties governments have had with al-Jazeera have arisen because it gets stories other channels do not have.
That makes it similar to the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency,
said IPS director-general Mario Lubetkin. Al-Jazeera has much in common
with IPS because the Arab network "goes for the news behind the news,"
and "because they cover the south," he said.
Lubetkin added that "we are working with them, they pick up a lot of stories from us in Arabic."
The forum addressed several issues such as 'parachute journalism',
'journalism of depth' and the new media. But the dominant theme
remained attacks on journalists in an increasingly difficult global
environment.
Al Jazeera is the enemy because it tells the truth. Thus it must be demonized as terrorists, and have lies spread about it to the American people.
Why do perfectly intelligent people always believe that the Bushes and Blairs, and the corporate media are deluding themselves or have made honest mistakes. These men are criminals with no morals, the Al Capone's of the 21st century.
We have gone well beyond the barbarians being at our gates. The murders, racketeers and extortionists are running our governments, corporations and media. They lie willfully for their own corrupt benefits.
Blue
1
April 07, 2007
Write comment
Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto:
Writings 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
