Monday, March 28, 2005
‘Al-Jazeera’: And Now, the Other News
Isabel Hilton takes on a tough review for the new book Al-Jazeera by Hugh Miles. Miles is a young, Arabic-speaking British journalist, who has spent much of his life in the Middle East. Miles focuses not only on the controversy surrounding the broadcast company, which has been dubbed the “world’s most notorious television station,” but also the skirmishes between the broadcasting company and the Bush administration.
Al-Jazeera, a liberal Middle Eastern broadcasting company has long been deemed “controversial” to say the least. Miles and Hilton has compiled a rather lengthily list of governments and officials that Al-Jzaeera has offended and even angered. It has even been denounced in several Middle Eastern countries, and their correspondents referred to as spies for the British. In 2002, the company was booted out of six countries and registering hundreds of complaints.
In an area where television and broadcasting are still heavily regulated by the state, it is a wonder Al-Jazeera is still able to operate within the Middle East. Hilton is quick to point out that to the citizens of the Middle East, even with costly installations of satellites; most of the broadcasts are regurgitated propaganda created by the state to maintain a level of influence and control over their citizens. It is simple to see how Al-Jazeera can be seen as such a threat to the leaders of the states and their own ideals for their countries.
The controversies between Al-Jazeera and the Bush administration seem to be growing as the war in Iraq continues. Although Miles is quick to point out that the Bush administration became more agitated with the broadcasting company as they come in possession of video tapes of Osama bin Laden. When asked by American contacts to censor the material, the emir of Qatar, who runs Al-Jazeera, declined much to the dismay of Colin Powell, stating ‘‘Parliamentary life requires you have free and credible media, and that is what we are trying to do.”
Within a short period of time, the Al-Jazeera offices in Kabul were eradicated by an American 500-pound bomb. After many denials by the Bush administration, they finally admitted to the site as a target of Qaeda activity. There seems to be a correlation between the liberal Al-Jazeera and the selling of the American values to the Middle Eastern populations. It seems as though Washington and the Bush bureaucrats are threatened by the liberal, if not stubborn broadcasting of Al-Jazeera and are having difficulty competing within the Muslim world.