Monday, May 9, 2011

Aljazeera's political coverage

 
 

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Aljazeera's political coverage
It has become a joke, really. I liked and praised Aljazeera Arabic all along. I always returned their calls and went out of my way to respond to their invitations, even for brief interviews. But the role of the network in the Arab counter-revolution (alongside Saudi Arabia) is leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. Early this week, they called me for a phone interview (I am sure on Syria) and I could not even return the calls. I feel that it has gone too far. Forget about the politics, it has become so sensational and unreliable relying for their coverage on the likes of "eye-witness Abu Muhammad". The political agenda is not even masked. Today, they clearly want to have a day of rage and protests in Syria: so they keep airing the same phone video footage. They tell viewers that there were massive demonstrations, and then you count like 40 or 50 in the protests. I am in no way denying or belittling the existence of protests against the repressive regime in Syria: and the Syrian regime media are as offensive if not more. But you can't learn the news from Aljazeera anymore. It reverted to a typical regime TV station. And notice that Yemen is no longer covered ever since Yemeni dictator accepted on principle the GCC lousy initiative. It is a very disturbing picture of Arab media and may usher in the rise of new media, especially with Egypt charting a new open course, politically.

 
 

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