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The threat to al-Jazeera
It would be a disaster for the Middle East if the US neutered
the region's most independent TV station
By George Galloway
06/15/06 "The
Guardian" -- -- Since its launch just over a
decade ago, the al-Jazeera satellite TV station has transformed
the politics of the Middle East. For the first time, people in
the region had access to a genuinely free and independent source
of news and comment that was neither under the control of
dictatorial regimes nor western states or corporations. Under
its slogan of "The opinion ... and the other opinion", al-Jazeera
gave an Arab world hungry for information and debate the means
to talk to itself and shape its future. It spawned imitators
across the region and has launched an English language station
that is beginning to challenge the western monopoly of
international news as a "voice of the global south". And the
station also put Qatar, which sponsors it, on the political map
and gave it unprecedented prestige throughout the Arab world and
beyond.
But now that achievement is being put at risk. The evidence is
clear that the US government is using its influence in Qatar to
try to neuter the station's independence, bring it to heel and
shift its coverage in a pro-western direction. If it succeeds,
it would be a disaster for the Arab world and its chance to
shape an independent and democratic future.
When al-Jazeera was launched in 1996, it was hailed by the US as
a brave step towards liberalisation of the Middle Eastern media.
But that all changed after September 2001 and the US invasions
of Afghanistan and Iraq. The US administration could not
tolerate a TV station that was popular and trusted in the Arab
and Muslim world broadcasting about the reality of western and
Israeli policies on the ground - and giving airtime to their
enemies. Although US and Israeli viewpoints have always been
given plenty of airtime, the freedom enjoyed by al-Jazeera's
editorial staff has clearly been too liberal and democratic for
the world's "leading democracy". Meanwhile, dictatorial regimes
in the region pressed Washington to do something about this
"turbulent priest" they believed was stirring their peoples
against their despotic rule.
Initially, al-Jazeera had forced other channels in the Arab
world to open up their coverage. But the new freedoms were not
tolerated for long. And although the US government launched its
own Arabic news channel al-Hurra, and Saudi Arabia al-Arabiya,
neither succeeded in denting al-Jazeera's popularity.
But the station has had to pay a high price for its independence
and professionalism. Its offices in Kabul and Baghdad were
bombed by the US; its Baghdad correspondent Tariq Ayyub was
killed; its Kabul correspondent Taysir Alluni was arrested in
Spain and charged with terrorism; and its cameraman Sami Alhajj
was kidnapped in Kabul and continues to be held in Guantánamo
Bay. Most notoriously of all, George Bush even suggested to Tony
Blair that they bomb al-Jazeera's Doha headquarters.
Now the US, which maintains a large military base in Qatar, has
adopted a more subtle approach to breaking the Arabs' voice of
independence and diversity. And the signs are that some elements
in the Qatari government have yielded to the relentless US
pressure. As one source close to al-Jazeera has put it: "You
don't need to bomb a TV station to change its direction." A
recent reshuffle has brought outspokenly pro-US directors on to
the board, including a former Qatari ambassador to Washington.
Another has boasted publicly that the tone and content of al-Jazeera's
coverage is going to be changed. But these moves have already
backfired and caused huge controversy not only in Qatar but
throughout the Middle East, and there is every chance that what
is in effect an attempted coup at the station will be reversed.
It would be a huge loss for independence and freedom in the Arab
world if it succeeded.
· George Galloway is Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow
www.georgegalloway.com
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