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Al-Jazeera Closure a Warning to Other Arab Media: Q&A with Sandip Roy 
Al-Jazeera Closure a Warning to Other Arab Media Q & A, Sandip Roy, Pacific News Service, Aug 16, 2004 The interim Iraqi government's closure of al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau for at least 30 days -- for its coverage of kidnappings and terrorism -- has sparked a furor in Arab media all over the Middle East. Jamal Dajani, who produces Mosaic, a roundup of Arab broadcast news for LinkTV spoke to PNS editor Sandip Roy, host of "UpFront," New California Media's radio show on KALW-FM 91.7 in San Francisco. Q: How is the Arab media reacting to the closure of al-Jazeera? Who are they blaming? A: They say the first casualty of war is the truth. There is a cartoon on the al-Jazeera Web site with a U.S. military officer who has his machine gun pointed at (Iraqi premier) Allawi's head, and Allawi is carrying a hammer and nails and shutting down the door of al-Jazeera. In the Arab media, Allawi is being described as a puppet controlled by the U.S. Q: Was there any indication that this closure of al-Jazeera was coming? A: For this we have to go way back to Afghanistan. Al-Jazeera and the U.S. government have been butting heads since the Afghan war. They were the only network to show the Bin Laden tapes, and they were criticized heavily. Colin Powell called them horrible and slanted. Donald Rumsfeld called them inexcusable. During the Iraqi war, Gen. Abizaid attacked them. Al-Jazeera is reporting that close to 37,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the beginning of the war. You don't hear those numbers here. The biggest attack al-Jazeera was in April during the fighting in Fallujah. Al-Jazeera reported from inside Fallujah quoting doctors as saying 700 civilians were killed. The Americans claimed most of the dead were insurgents and threatened to expel al-Jazeera from Iraq. Al-Jazeera also did a major expose on Allawi. They reported that he was working for the CIA, and before he went over to the Americans he was Saddam's intelligence officer. And he obviously doesn't like that. Q: Didn't al-Jazeera actually sign a code of ethics recently to be more sensitive in their reporting? A: In July, al-Jazeera became the first and only Arab television network to create a professional code of ethics. If we are fostering democracy in the Middle East we should work with al-Jazeera. Before al-Jazeera all the networks were government controlled and said what the governments wanted them to say. Al-Jazeera broke all the rules by showing clashing opinions. Q: Has al-Jazeera's coverage of terrorist kidnappings changed lately? A: Al-Jazeera has stopped showing the ghoulish footage that other television networks like al Manar from Lebanon do. When they the Turkish truck driver was executed, al-Jazeera showed the kidnappers behind him reading the message, but then it stopped the recording and just said that he was killed. Al Manar showed the terrorists seizing him, throwing him on the ground and then one of them grabbing a gun and shooting three bullets into his head. Q: What Arab media still report out of Iraq? A: Al-Jazeera, in fact, is still reporting from Baghdad, though its offices are shut down. Instead of relying on its own reporters and cameramen, it is relying on others. For example, in Baghdad you have al-Arabiya, Abu Dhabi Television and al Manar television. But there is a feeling that the largest, most-viewed network was singled out to send a message to the rest of the networks, that if you're going to report something we don't like, we will shut you down. Q: Are the other networks rallying to al-Jazeera's defense or relieved to have a major competitor out of the way? A: All the networks reported what happened to al-Jazeera. They got a lot of support from other networks. There is a lot of camaraderie between reporters. Q: Is the tone of the coverage on the American-sponsored networks different? A. There are two U.S.-sponsored networks, Al-Iraqiya and al Hurra, and they cost American taxpayers $112 million. They have been failing horribly. Recent surveys say the No. 1 station is al-Jazeera, then al-Arabiya. Al-hurra only captured less than 3 percent of the market during its honeymoon period, when people were curious about it. The tone is always different on them. Take the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. It was all over Arab networks and American networks. It took al-Hurra three or four days to even mention it. Q: Is al-Jazeera the first major station to be closed down? What do you think will happen after 30 days? A: They also closed down al-Hawza newspaper. They recently arrested the editor of a major newspaper called Insight. A lot of journalists have been harassed. Of course al-Jazeera makes the most impact. But they didn't say the closure is permanent. I think it's going to backfire against the Iraqi government and United States, because we keep preaching to the world that we are trying to foster democracy, and we do the opposite. |