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| International |
| Jordan recalls ambassador to Qatar over al-Jazeera episode... |
| 2002-08-10 |
| Jordan on Saturday recalled its ambassador to Qatar in a diplomatic row over a program on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel that the government said was insulting to the royal family. Ambassador Omar Al-Amad was recalled for consultations three days after Jordan shut down the Al-Jazeera office in Amman and revoked the credentials of its correspondents. Al-Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government. The Arabic news channel describes itself as semiofficial. We've gotten cheezed at al-Jazeera, too, but this is overreaction on the Jordanians' part. It's that free press thang. It can be really uncomfortable sometimes, when you don't agree with what's being said... The program, "Opposite Direction," hosted a U.S.-based Palestinian university professor, Assad Abu-Khalil, who rebuked the Jordanian royal family, including King Abdullah II and his late father, King Hussein. Abu-Khalil accused Jordan of pro-Israeli stances even before it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. He also claimed that Hussein, who died of cancer in 1999, was on the CIA's payroll, receiving $1 million a year. Pretty incendiary. But a better way to combat such statements would be to refute them if they ain't so, or to justify them if they are so... On Thursday, Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher summoned the Qatari ambassador to Amman, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Bin Jassim Bin Mohammad Al Thani, to inform him of the government's "strong anger and annoyance" over the talk-show broadcast on Tuesday. Muasher said the program was an "insult to all Jordanians regardless of their political background." True or not, huh? King Hussein was, from our point of view, the voice of sweet reason in the Middle East. That means from the overall Arab point of view he was... well, not someone to be happy with. And that annual million from the CIA apparently didn't go far, when Saddam Hussein bought King Hussein's loyalty during the Gulf War — probably by offering to make him Protector of the Holy Sites after kicking out the Sods. Al-Jazeera's "Opposite Direction" has often stirred controversy in Arab capitals because of its critical approach to Arab politics and leadership. Al-Jazeera has run into problems with authorities in other Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Bahrain. Unlike state-run media, the station often airs views of local opposition figures and their criticism of the countries' rulers. That tells me that, whether I agree with its programming or not, al-Jazeera's a good thing. I'd like to see six or seven competitors up and running. Together they'd raise quite a few ripples in the pond of feudal stagnation. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |