Blasted by Washington and London for beaming distressing pictures from Iraq, al-Jazeera television said yesterday it would not censor the horrors of war.
"I think the audience has the right to see all aspects of the battle," said Jihad Ballout, spokesman for the Qatar-based al-Jazeera, seen by many as being a major influence in shaping Arab opinion over the US-led war.
The 24-hour, Arabic-language, broadcaster deliberated carefully before beaming pictures that could be especially troublesome to viewers, he said, and denied any political bias.
"We're not catering for any specific side, or any specific ideology. What we are doing is our business as professionally as possible," Ballout added.
Images of bombed Baghdad buildings, bloodied and screaming Iraqi children and slain or captured US and British troops seen by millions of viewers angered Washington and London which seek to portray the war as one to liberate Iraqis.
"If there's a perceived imbalance, it's purely a function of access," Ballout said.
He said if the Americans and British gave the station more access to their troops, who invaded Iraq 12 days ago "you would certainly find as much coverage on the ground from there as you would find from the Iraqi side."
The station says it has at least 35 million viewers in the Arab world. In Europe, Ballout said, its subscriber figures doubled to 8 million homes in the first week of the war. These came mainly in countries with large Muslim populations such as Britain and France.
The Pentagon initially offered al-Jazeera several opportunities to travel with US combat units but only one of these "embed" offers worked out, he said.
The others fell through because of visa headaches from Bahrain, a base for allied warships, and Kuwait, launchpad for many journalists covering US and British ground forces.
With many ordinary Arabs protesting angrily at the US-led war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, authorities in some Arab states also object to al-Jazeera's conflict coverage.
The station has also drawn US ire for its cover in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its broadcast messages from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and, more recently, for showing video footage of Iraqi interrogation of US prisoners of war.
"They tend to portray our efforts in a negative light," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview with National Public Radio broadcast last Wednesday.
The same day, Powell appeared on al-Jazeera, as have other Bush administration officials to get their messages to Arab viewers.
Britain's military commander in the Gulf, Air Marshal Brian Burridge even suggested the station might have become a tool of Iraqi propaganda and violated the Geneva Conventions. In fact, the 1949 protocols bind states, not media organizations.
Burridge slammed al-Jazeera for showing "shocking, close-up" pictures of two British troops later said by Prime Minister Tony Blair to have been executed by Iraqis, a claim which was denied by the soldiers' family members based on information from other members of their unit.
"Quite apart from the obvious distress that such pictures cause friends and families of the personnel concerned, such disgraceful behavior is a flagrant breach of the Geneva Convention," Burridge told a briefing at US Central Command's forward headquarters in Qatar last Thursday.
But Ballout, a 45-year-old former London-based journalist of Lebanese descent, dismisses such criticism as hypocritical and self-serving. He said other 24-hour news channels like the BBC and CNN had also used footage of Iraqi POWs, hands bounds and heads bowed, that could have upset viewers.
"We have covered similar incidents, similar conflicts, in Serbia, in Bosnia, in the [Israeli-] occupied territories and in Afghanistan, and nobody said a thing," he said.
"It just strikes me a little bit funny that all the outcry is taking place" now.
Al-Jazeera is not however without its supporters in the US. The New York Times said in an editorial yesterday that "if our hope for the Arab world is, as the Bush administration never ceases to remind us, for it to enjoy a free, democratic life, al-Jazeera is the kind of television station we should encourage."
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS