Three Responses to Dorrance Smith
May 6's Wall Street Journal included three letters to the editor in response to Dorrance Smith's implication of Aljazeera. Here they are:
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Posted by Matthew Burton on May 6, 2005 at 03:21 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (349)
James Pinkerton responds to Dorrance Smith
James Pinkerton in Newsday on Dorrance Smith's Aljazeera column:
Smith went further. He argued that American news networks, including Fox News (where I'm a contributor), are "strong partners" with Al-Jazeera in this hearts-and-minds struggle that America, he believes, is losing. Smith is a serious man making a serious charge, made all the more pertinent after yet another weekend of televised mayhem in Iraq.
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Posted by Matthew Burton on May 3, 2005 at 03:29 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (104)
Dorrance Smith calls out Aljazeera
An April 25 column by Dorrance Smith, the CPA's former media advisor, calls out Aljazeera as "in cahoots with terrorists." Many people have questioned Aljazeera's relationship with al Qaeda and implied the outlet has foreknowledge of terrorist attacks. But this is the closest anyone has come to saying the two groups are actively cooperating:
As long as Al-Jazeera continues to practice in cahoots with terrorists while we are at war, should the U.S. government maintain normal relations with Qatar?...As long as Al-Jazeera continues to aid and abet the enemy, as long as we are fighting a war on the ground and in the airwaves, why are we not fighting back against Al-Jazeera and Qatar, the nation that makes possible the network's existence?
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Posted by Matthew Burton on April 25, 2005 at 03:08 AM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (163)
Iran shuts down al-Jazeera bureau
Iran shuts down al-Jazeera bureau
April 20, 2005
Associated Press
Iran has suspended the operations of Arab television network al-Jazeera, accusing it of inflaming violent protests by minority Arabs in the nation's southwest.
The Government said two more protesters died in the unrest on Monday, bringing the three-day toll to three dead and at least eight injured in Khuzistan province, on Iran's border with Iraq.
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Posted by Matthew Burton on April 20, 2005 at 03:42 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (48)
Privatizing Aljazeera
Aljazeera has announced they are developing a plan to become self-sustaining. It would end nine years of subsidization by the Qatari government. The original plan was to have done this by 2001, five years after the station's founding. The articles speculate that Qatar has raised the issue with AJ in order to divert U.S. pressure away from the government.
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 31, 2005 at 09:16 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (71)
Khaleej Times (Dubai): Al Jazeera not to bow to pressure
The boss of Al Jazeera TV has vowed that his channel would, under no circumstances, bow down to any external pressure and continue to render its duties in the same manner.
"We will never be influenced by any criticism whether internal or external. We respect our profession and will never give up on principles and ethics under any circumstances," Waddah Khanfar, Director-General of the Qatar-based channel told Khaleej Times yesterday. More
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 12, 2005 at 10:00 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (85)
AP: Tape shows Al-Jazeera, Saddam link
A videotape found in a pile of documents in Baghdad following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime shows a former manager of the Al-Jazeera satellite channel thanking one of Saddam's sons for his support and telling him that "Al-Jazeera is your channel," the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Sunday. More
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 2, 2005 at 09:38 AM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (315)
Post-Saddam Media Flourishes, Not Without Controversy
IPS-Inter Press Service September 17, 2004, Friday
By Peyman Pejman
BAGHDAD - Since the fall of Saddam Hussein and his regime last year, one of the clearest signs that a new Iraq has emerged is the flourishing media business.
But their coverage, and that of international Arabic-language satellite channels such as Al-Arabiye and Al-Jazeera, has been subject to much debate. U. S. and many Iraqi officials say the coverage has been biased and has provoked violence.
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Posted by Matthew Burton on September 17, 2004 at 11:08 AM in Al Arabiya, Al-Sabah, Aljazeera, Media landscape | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (188)
Al-Jazeera continues news reporting in Iraq despite ban
Text of report by Qatari newspaper The Peninsula web site on 11 September
Doha: Despite a ban imposed by the Iraqi authorities on the popular Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV channel, the station continues to actively air live telecast of news and events in the violence-infested Arab nation.
A highlight of the channel's coverage of Iraq is a number of interviews conducted telephonically of opposition politicians, teachers and intellectuals in Iraq, some viewers in Doha said on Thursday [9 September].
A spokesman of the TV channel told The Peninsula last weekend that Al-Jazeera's coverage of the events unfolding in the war-torn country was important for Iraqi viewers, as also for the outside world. He also clarified that the ban was not for an indefinite period, as pointed out by sections of the global media. "We were taken unawares by the extension of the ban, which is to continue until further notice," said the official.
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Posted by Matthew Burton on September 11, 2004 at 02:25 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (152)
Arab Advisors Group releases Saudi media audience study
Al Jazeera viewers base in Saudi Arabia is 5 times larger than United States Sponsored AlHurra's audience. Al Hurra's credibility scores are quite bad in contrast with those of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya.
A new scientific survey by the Arab Advisors Group revealed that close to 89% of Arab households in Saudi Arabia have Satellite TVs. The results also revealed that Arab SAT TV Viewers in Saudi Arabia have little trust in AlHurra News Channel. In contrast Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya news channels have much higher credibility amongst a much larger viewers base. The survey covered all channels viewed in Saudi Arabia be they news, music, sports and general entertainment. Radio listening patterns were also covered by the survey.
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Posted by Matthew Burton on September 5, 2004 at 11:17 AM in Al Arabiya, Alhurra, Aljazeera, Middle East media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (84)
Reuters on the Aljazeera ban
DUBAI (Reuters) - Leading Arabic television channel Al Jazeera says Iraq's U.S.-allied authorities have extended a ban on the controversial broadcaster and closed its office in Baghdad.
Iraq's interim government first ordered the closure of Al Jazeera's Baghdad office for one month in August for backing "criminals and gangsters" by airing parts of videotapes from groups claiming to have seized or killed foreign hostages.
Al Jazeera officials said on Saturday they were informed that the extension of the ban was indefinite.
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Posted by Matthew Burton on September 4, 2004 at 02:56 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (333)
Al-Jazeera lawyer says decision to keep Baghdad office closed "illegal"
Transcript of September 4 Aljazeera broadcast, featuring interview with AJ's lawyer:
Kurayshan: Iraqi forces have stormed Al-Jazeera offices in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and sealed them with red wax. The forces also broke down a door on the second floor of the offices. This comes at a time when the one-month closure of the offices ended. The Iraqi government extended the closure indefinitely.
We have with us from Baghdad Haydar al-Mulla, Al-Jazeera lawyer in Baghdad. Mr Haydar, what exactly happened today?
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Posted by Matthew Burton on September 4, 2004 at 02:39 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (58)
CSM on violence, imagery and propaganda
Militia's other weapon: videos
BAGHDAD - Video has become an important propaganda tool in the Mahdi Army fight against the US, which continued Tuesday in Najaf.
Abu Mujtaba is not your typical filmmaker. He doesn't have an agent, he doesn 't aspire to move to Hollywood, and his interest in film is chillingly practical. He considers Black Hawk Down a "great film," for instance, because it shows him how to kill Americans.
Abu Mujtaba is a member of the media department of Moqtada al-Sadr's Shiite militia. He uses a tiny digital Sony Handycam instead of a Kalashnikov and is one of a half-dozen guerrilla filmmakers who record their acts of war to encourage their followers, spread their beliefs, and portray what they see as the heroism of Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army. More
Posted by Matthew Burton on August 25, 2004 at 12:37 PM in Al Arabiya, Aljazeera, Violence in broadcasting | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (214)
Guardian feature on Arab attitudes toward Aljazeera
Leader of the pack: Lisa O'Carroll reports from Qatar on how the satellite channel al-Jazeera has put the Gulf state on the map
I am descending in the lift in the plush, marble-clad interior of a five-star hotel in Qatar to rejoin an international conference which is ostensibly about Arab media versus the west but which has turned into something like a old-style Labour party conference, with tedious speech after speech.
The lift stops at the third floor and an Arab gentleman steps in. "Are you enjoying the conference?" he asks. "Yes," I reply politely, not wishing to offend in case he is an executive from al-Jazeera which is, after all funding the forum.
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Posted by Matthew Burton on August 16, 2004 at 03:32 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (90)
Daily Telegraph commentary on Allawi and press freedoms
Freedom needs free press
General Ghaleb al-Jazairi, police chief of Najaf, issued an instruction to journalists working in the Iraqi holy city yesterday that sounded remarkably like a threat. "I have received orders from the interior minister, who demands that all local, Arab and foreign journalists leave the hotel and city within two hours," he said. "We have information that there is a 250kg car bomb targeting them. Therefore you should leave immediately for your own safety."
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Posted by Matthew Burton on August 16, 2004 at 03:28 PM in Aljazeera, Press freedom | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (139)
