Al Jazeera broadcasts from a state of the art facility in Doha,
the capital of Qatar, a wealthy independent state run by an Emir who
has, until this point, remained close friends with the US while
allowing Al Jazeera its independence.
“Nobody is talking about
it publicly and nothing is quite clear yet but it looks like there is
new pressure from the government of Qatar [the oil and natural gas rich
Gulf state that bankrolled Al Jazeera], as well as a political battle
over how to manage the channel inside its government with the US and
its supporters, including the editor of the Arabic edition of Newsweek,
lobbying in the shadows.”
The United States is a major trading
partner with Qatar and maintains a vast military facility there. The
high profile Coalition Media (ie. propaganda) Center was based in the
country, and the Pentagon has used the base airfield to supply the war
effort in Iraq. Lebanese sources report that US planes airlifted
cluster bombs from that base to Israel for use in its recent war
against Hezbollah. Israel’s relations with Qatar are said to be close.
Washington
and London were never happy with Al Jazeera’s political independence.
Its offices in Afghanistan and Iraq were bombed in the early days of
the war, and more recently there have been reports that President Bush
considered bombing Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, but was only
stopped by a strong dissent by Britain’s Tony Blair. Al Jazeera has
been denied access by the British government to documents that would
confirm this widely reported (and believed) story that has also been
officially dismissed.
“You don’t need to bomb Al Jazeera to
change its direction,” said my source. “There is a softer way to
influence its direction by taking it over from within and it can happen
quietly almost as if in slow motion. You ‘broaden’ some programs,
announce new ‘guidelines,’ issue new edicts reinforcing top-down
control, purge some professionals you don’t like, and then give more
positive unchallenged airtime to backers of US foreign policy.
Washington would not be open about any behind the scenes role it is
playing in all this for fear of triggering a very negative public
reaction.”
The irony here is that for many years Al Jazeera
made a point of giving substantial airtime to US officials and their
surrogates to show fairness. This even led some hardliners in the Arab
World years ago to accuse the station of being CIA-backed and even
pro-Israel. But whatever exposure they got was never enough for a
Pentagon that practices “Information Dominance” and seeks to exclude
all contrary views. They expect the kind of uncritical coverage they
received on American TV.
Ironically, a former US military briefer became so disgusted with US media manipulation that he joined Al Jazeera.
Al
Jazeera reporters have been killed by US soldiers, prosecuted in Spain,
and imprisoned. One remains in Guantanamo with no charges against him.
These external actions have only strengthened Al Jazeera’s resolve and
won audience sympathy for the station. That may be why a new internal
intervention is underway.
The Friends of Al Jazeera website carries a post suggesting that this is exactly what is happening.
“It
is rumored that the new pro-US Board of Directors (which include the
former Qatari Ambassador to the United States, Hamad Al Kuwari and
Mahmood Shamam who are both are clearly sympathetic to the US Agenda in
the region) and their representative at station, the new Qatari
Managing Director, Mr. Ahmad Kholeifi is a result of pressure placed on
the Emir of Qatar by the US Administration.
Rumours of a ’soft
editorial shift’ towards a more pro-Qatari and pro-US agenda are
already floating around media circles in the region.
Sources
inside AlJazeera have confirmed that the Board has already instituted
radical changes that threaten the stations editorial integrity and
independence. In less than a month since the pro-American Board of
Directors was appointed, sweeping edicts affecting the whole of
AlJazeera have been passed down by the newly appointed Qatari Managing
Director, Ahmad Al Kholeifi.”
My source believes the rumors of an imposed top-down change are true.
Al
Jazeera’s journalists are diverse and committed to the channel’s
mission. They would not likely be silent if they felt their work was
under attack or being unduly pressured. On the other hand, for all
their independence, they know they are highly dependent on subsidies
from the Emir. If he is being pressured, they know that that will
eventually have an impact on the channel’s managers.
Media
owners have a tendency to meddle in news presentation, with politics,
ego and power tripping often motivating factors. Sometimes, darker
forces are involved.
In this case, why is a pro-US diplomat
being given managerial authority while a respected and experienced
journalist/general manager is apparently being ousted?
Until
now, by and large, the internal politics of Qatar has not been given a
high profile on the air but that may be changing, I am told, with more
Qataris visible as pundits and interview subjects in recent weeks.
Perhaps
the Emir who is putting up the cash also wants more visibility and is
engineering compliance with his wishes. Perhaps Qatar now wants to use
the channel to build a higher profile for itself. In the Middle East,
media and politics are often intertwined. If Al Jazeera is politicized,
it could lose the credibility it has earned.
Too much tampering could easily backfire and undermine Al Jazeera’s support.
Now
ten years old, Al Jazeera has grown from an offshoot of BBC’s Arabic
Service into a feisty and independent multi-channel media company with
a global satellite footprint that makes almost as much news as it
reports.
Brandishing the slogan “The opinion and the other
opinion,” Al Jazeera is known for strong reporting and carrying diverse
and outspoken views including videos by Osama bin Laden and opposition
voices to many governments backed by the US.
Al Jazeera says
its coverage is balanced but critics, especially on the right in
America, have targeted it as “terrorist TV,” a slogan designed to
discredit its news and programming, which was first only seen in Arabic
but now has a separate English channel.
In some ways, the
network’s operations mirror and reflect the volatile politics of the
Middle East in which it is based, a region which is itself torn by
external interventions, conflicts with and among wealthy and
traditional elites, not to mention insurgency, war, political
conspiracies, and competing nationalistic interests and
internationalist aspirations.
Hailed as the fifth best-known
brand in the world, the nature of that brand is now being contested. Is
an implosion on the horizon, or will the Channel sort out its tensions
and emerge even stronger as a worldwide competitor against conventional
look-alike, think-alike corporatized media?
What is disturbing
is that Al Jazeera had the potential of bringing real diversity to the
global news agenda with more reporting from the Third World and even
about the news world itself.
In an increasingly monopolized
media marketplace with concentration of ownership on the rise, with
Rupert Murdoch bidding for Dow Jones and Thompson taking over Reuters,
there are fewer and fewer highly visible independent outlets. A recent
scandal at the ineffective US created Al Hurra station may have led the
Bush Administration to realize it cannot compete with Al Jazeera from
without and needs instead to try to change it from within. An
Administration willing to invade countries has no compunctions against
invading a TV station–but it has to do so covertly. Bear in mind that
Washington has spent tens of millions on media management and media
operations that do its bidding.
US cable outlets have kept Al
Jazeera English off the air–one way of marginalizing it with American
viewers–but that also impacts on its ability to make money–something, I
am told many Qataris expect. Maybe they are willing to trade the
channel’s integrity for a shot at the quest for profitability that
drives most of the media industry. But being greedy could backfire if
the channel’s reputation suffers. We still don’t know who is leaning on
whom?
As an innovator and an exception to the un-brave world of
media, Al Jazeera has been exceptional. It would be shame to see its
core values compromised just as it becomes a bigger player in a world
that desperately needs media outlets that care about the conditions of
the world’s people.
It may be time for its viewers and friends
to demand that Al Jazeera be allowed to remain the respected and
crusading force it has become in broadcasting and world journalism.
Let’s hope some combination of insiders and backers will be able to
insure that outsiders with parochial or imperial agendas cannot “fix”
what isn’t broken.
Journalists and media activists worldwide
may need to get engaged to send a message of concern to the Emir and
the media hitmen (ie. consultants) who are apparently now sneaking
around in Washington and Doha with the hopes of turning Jazeera into
Foxeera.
Writings 
Sources inside Al Jazeera who are in a position to know what is going on now confirm to MediaChannel.org that there is an internal struggle underway that may dilute Al Jazeera’s independence and steer it in a more pro-western, pro-US direction. 
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