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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Arab TV networks accused of fueling violence in Iraq |
| 2004-04-12 |
| Looks like some people are starting to grow a clue The US-led coalition and its Iraqi allies accused the Arab world’s two biggest television news stations of fanning anti-US sentiment and sectarian violence in Iraq with their reporting. "Anti-US sentiment has been heightened by Al-Jazeera and other anti-coalition media reporting" on the closure of a Shiite radical newspaper and the siege of the insurgent bastion of Fallujah, the coalition’s deputy director of operations, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, told a news conference. "We have reason to believe that several news organizations do not engage in truthful reporting," coalition civilian spokesman Dan Senor said. "In fact it is no reporting." Qatar-based Al-Jazeera and its Dubai-based rival Al-Arabiya, have been providing graphic images of the devastation and casualties in the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah during fierce fighting between US forces and insurgents last week. Al-Jazeera has also been giving significant prominence and airtime to supporters of Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr, who is wanted in connection with the murder of a rival cleric last year. Both Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya have also been the exclusive broadcasters of several videotapes of foreigners kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq. Iraq’s National Security Advisor Muaffaq al-Rubaie, a Shiite, lashed out at what he called "false reports" by both channels Sunday that he resigned from the council in protest against fighting between US troops and Sadr’s supporters that has left many civilians dead in Baghdad and the south. "I am so upset and so angry about what has been reported on Arab media and television about my resignation," Rubaie told a press conference in Baghdad. He said he left his position in the council which is legislative in nature to take an executive post as national security advisor as part of the transfer of power by the US-led coalition to a caretaker government on June 30. "I warn the Arabic media: Iraq’s patience has reached its limit and they will regret what they are doing," said a visibly angry Rubaie. He accused both channels of inciting violence between the country’s ethnic groups with their reporting. "This media is not happy with the end of the sectarianism in Iraq with the fall of Saddam Hussein, so they lie, lie and lie," said Rubaie. He warned both television stations and other "irresponsible" Arab media that they would be shut down and banned from reporting from Iraq if they did not change their ways. "All they have to do if they want to continue working in Iraq is to abide by the international and basic rules of reporting and refrain from using these facts and semi-facts to incite sectarian violence," he said. But Al-Jazeera, which has been in hot water many times before regarding its reporting in Iraq, insists on its professional standards. "Al-Jazeera is regularly the butt of criticism, often misplaced," spokesman Jihad Ballout told AFP. The widely viewed channel is merely "reporting events objectively, which cannot possibly please everyone," he said. "Al-Jazeera is not in the business of politics. It is a professional news outlet ... which is neither with nor against anyone." Ballout said he hoped Rubaie would not carry out his threat to shut down the station’s operation in Iraq, saying that such a move would "harm not just Al-Jazeera ... but also the Arab viewer and press freedom." Al-Arabiya, which was banned from reporting in Iraq for more than two months at the end of November on charges on inciting murder, was not immediately available for comment. But in a sign of Al-Jazeera’s popularity, Japanese reporters slammed their diplomats in Jordan Monday, saying that they were left with reports by Al-Jazeera and other Arab media as the sole source of news about three Japanese hostages held by insurgents in Iraq. "We end up getting our only news from Al-Jazeera," said Yoichi Koizumi, a reporter with Fuji Television News Network. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 I find it distinctly disturbing that the spokesman has the first name "Jihad." But more than that is the obvious omission of CNN as a culprit of this biased reporting . . . |
| Posted by: The Doctor 2004-04-12 8:42:41 PM |