Uncensored Al Jazeera TV Used To Criticism

by Kim Ghattas

The Qatar-based station quoted bin Laden as saying that the United States would know no peace until Palestine was liberated.

The TV station, long acclaimed for its bold, Western-like approach to news coverage of the Middle East, is now being applauded -- by some -- for its coverage of the developments since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. It is the only TV station with a regular correspondent inside Afghanistan, who has been reporting from Kabul for two years.

Secretary of State Colin Powell complained earlier this month to the Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani about the "virulent" anti-American positions voiced by some of the guests on al Jazeera's talk shows.

Earlier, the U.S. embassy in Doha filed a formal complaint with the Qatari government, saying the station had a tendency to interview analysts who argued that it was the U.S.'s foreign policy which brought about the Sept. 11 plane attacks.

The U.S. also expressed displeasure with the repeated airing of an interview with bin Laden dating back a few years that it deemed too flattering.

However, the United States has little power to rein in the TV station, which is commonly referred to as the Arab world's CNN and has an estimated 40 million viewers.

"Because this comes from the United States, which considers itself the strongest advocate of freedom of expression, it is very strange and unacceptable," said al Jazeera news editor Ahmad Sheikh in an interview with the Associated Press about the U.S. complaints.

"We are balanced and objective and never interfere in the news. We give all opposing views. Bin Laden is a party to the conflict and his opinions must be heard," he said.

Since its creation in 1996, Al Jazeera has provided the region and the rest of the world with a new kind of entertainment: politicians yelling at each other during heated live debates, and taboo issues, from the peace talks with Israel to sexual behavior in the region, discussed openly on air.

It also broadcasts well-researched documentaries and up-to-date news reports that are generally free of government propaganda.

The station is often the first to receive faxes from groups claiming responsibility for an attack, such as the Palestinian Hamas, or calling for a jihad against the United States, such as bin Laden yesterday.

Sensationalist at times, the station has become the bane of many regimes in the region who hunt down dissidents only to see them appear on the screen of Al Jazeera.

On different occasions, the station's offices have been shut down in Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan for its critical reporting on domestic issues. One results is that the station can sometimes look like a platform for all sorts of extremists and pariahs.

Today, the TV station is proud to be the only media outlet with a correspondent in Kabul, and its overall coverage of the events following the Sept. 11 has been praised. Al Jazeera correspondents in the region say they have not been given any editorial guidelines to follow in their work.

But there has been talk that the station sometimes sounds like a mouthpiece for the Taliban -- especially reports from Taysir el Alouni in the Afghan capital.

The station's coverage of the Palestinian uprising, which has just entered its second year, also has won acclaim. The obvious emotional bias towards the Palestinian cause did not have too much effect on the balance of the coverage and after a brief interruption, interviews of Israeli politicians resumed.

Despite some shortcomings, the TV station remains unique in the Arab world -- perhaps because it was the pet project of the new Qatari emir al Thani, who ended censorship in his country in 1995 and shut down the ministry of information, a hallmark of countries that lack a free press.

Most of the Al Jazeera staff were recruited from the Arabic service of BBC television when it closed down and have experience with Western-style journalism. Programming was based on BBC formats.

With very few exceptions, all TV stations in the Arab world are state-owned, determining in advance the slant of their coverage.

The Qatari government still spends millions of dollars a year to sustain the TV station, which is shunned by some companies who worry about alienating other countries if they advertise on Al Jazeera. But the station has an independent editorial policy -- although no one has ever been heard on it opposing the Qatari ruling family.

And the al Jazeera attitude continues to be that if they're getting so many complaints from all sides, then they must be doing something right.