The War on Al Jazeera (2010)

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Once again, the Kuwaiti government has closed Al Jazeera’s offices, registering its accusation that Al Jazeera is not objective and works to stir strife, on the assumption that the Kuwaiti government is objective, vigilant over national unity, reform, and harmony among people.

Closing Al Jazeera and pursuing its offices and correspondents has become a daily routine, a media and political phenomenon in the Arab homeland — a routine that will not stop as long as Al Jazeera exists, and as long as these Arab regimes sit enthroned on the nation’s chest.

Al Jazeera faces a vicious war at both the Arab and global levels, and Western states and Arab regimes are not ashamed to suppress a media outlet, or to trot out arguments that fool no one but the naive.

Just recently, South Korea decided to join the war on Al Jazeera, banning Al Jazeera’s crew in Seoul from covering the G20 summit — or perhaps someone decided this for it, or pressured it into deciding this, namely the United States of America.

Korea has no stake whatsoever in hostility toward Arabs, and no Arab carries a rifle and shoots at Koreans, yet this is the second time it has volunteered to earn the enmity of the Arab peoples. The first time was when it sent forces to Iraq to contribute, alongside America, to transporting Iraq into the world of democratic civilization, filled as it is with killing and blood.

It would have been more fitting for South Korea to be concerned with its own independence, rather than remain under American military domination, a tool in its hands for venting America’s wrath on peoples, parties, and resistance movements.

Korea’s entry into the war on Al Jazeera constitutes an expansion of this war, and Kuwait’s decision constitutes a continuation of the fierce official Arab assault on the channel.

Reasons for the War

There are several reasons for the war on Al Jazeera, all intertwined, ultimately amounting to one thing: that there are those who wish to continue (the United States and Britain specifically, and the Arab regimes allied with them) toying with Arabs and their future, their ears dangling as they are led like cattle, with no one alerting them to the abysses awaiting their generations and their existence as a nation with the right to life and progress.

There are those keen on continuing to ride the Arabs like mules that hope for nothing but a handful of hay their rider feeds them. This can be detailed as follows:

First: since Al Jazeera’s era began, the Arab has begun to hear the other point of view from an open satellite media outlet. There is no longer a monopoly by official media, which oppressed people with news of the president, the king, the president’s wife, the president’s sister, the honor guard, songs of glorification, and fabricated victories. The Arab has begun to grasp the scale of backwardness the Arab nation suffers from, and to recognize the policies of repression and despotism, and the deceit and manipulation official media practices, and so on. Al Jazeera has brought about a qualitative shift in the Arab street, contributing forcefully to lifting the Arab out of the state of foolishness that accompanied official media, into a state of thinking about what is happening around him.

Second: Al Jazeera contributes to spreading awareness among the Arab human being, which constitutes a great danger to the Arab regimes. Repressive, despotic regimes fight awareness, considering it a fierce enemy because of the danger it poses in raising others’ awareness, and they show no leniency toward people of awareness, pursuing them day and night, taking various measures against them aimed at sidelining them, displacing them, or distracting them with their daily bread far from contact with people.

The despot is a slave to his own power, doing everything in his power to preserve his continued rule, brutalizing and exploiting people, and is hostile to anything that could lead to change and development. Aspiring toward change endangers his rule, and it is better for people to remain foolish.

Third: Al Jazeera has built strong, solid bridges between Arabs across the various Arab fiefdoms, contributing thereby to strengthening national and religious awareness, and facilitating communication between Arab intellectuals and thinkers wherever they may be.

Al Jazeera hosts many prominent figures of thought, opinion, and expertise across its various programs, placing the nation’s concerns as a whole on the table of discussion and dialogue, and gradually transforming the nation into one that integrates and shares a sense of common responsibility and shared destiny. In this, it works forcefully to build Arab and Islamic unifying sentiments, indirectly rousing ambitions, thereby defying the policies of the Arab regimes that have demolished the idea of unity in favor of a ridiculous expression called “Arab solidarity” or “joint Arab action.”

Fourth: Al Jazeera has contributed directly to demonstrating the Arab regimes’ subservience to Western states, always showing the extent of foreign interference in Arab affairs, and the submission of most regimes to others’ will. It also contributes to publicizing the friendly relations existing between many Arab regimes and Israel, the advancing normalization relations, and sometimes joint coordination to achieve some purpose in confronting Arab and Islamic resistance movements.

Fifth: Al Jazeera did not submit to American propaganda in the attack on Afghanistan and Iraq, and did not surrender to American justifications for besieging Arab and Islamic states, or striking them militarily, or supporting Israel in various international forums.

Al Jazeera remained outside American media ambitions, and outside media terrorism, working to expose the truth of American policy as it is, without false propaganda or vulgarity. Al Jazeera has disturbed the Americans’ sleep in media terms, because it has continued detailing news and reports in a scholarly, professional manner.

Sixth: intensive coverage of Arab concerns, and attention to the details of the wars against the Palestinian people, against Lebanon, and against Gaza. Al Jazeera has stood, in times of hardship, with every Arab people subjected to injustice or aggression, opening its doors to continuous coverage and conveying events moment by moment. It has reported the news of the Palestinian intifada in detail, the resistance’s actions, the siege of Arafat, the siege of Gaza, the war on Hezbollah and on Hamas, and so on. It has opened its doors to cover Iraq’s concerns and the tragedies the Iraqi people is subjected to.

Seventh: Al Jazeera’s ability for media coverage and moving from place to place, following events with great speed and from primary sources. Of course, the credit for this goes to the government of Qatar, which provides financial and material support, and resists various pressures to close the station.

Professionalism of Performance

What troubles Americans and the Arab regimes most is that Al Jazeera insists on professionalism in its media performance, refusing to be anyone’s media mouthpiece. This is troubling and irritating because it gains credibility over time, and the number of those relying on it to follow news and developments increases. Al Jazeera does not take sides in its coverage of events, always bringing the opinion and the other opinions, and with every event brings people speaking from different points of view, including those who support the Arab regimes and America, and those who do not, and brings in neutral parties and experts unrelated to this side or that.

Had Al Jazeera been the media mouthpiece of one party, such as Qatar, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, or Egypt, the Arab regimes and America would have been reassured that the channel’s viewers belonged to a single category, its audience known and not spread across the corners of the earth, but its ability to continue pursuing objectivity and presenting various points of view runs counter to what its enemies desire — those who are advocates of stability and the continuation of the status quo in the Arab-Islamic region and the world, meaning the holders of power and interests who trample on peoples and plunder their wealth.

A media outlet’s credibility constitutes a great problem for all those who want to obscure the truth and lie to people. There are many media outlets in the Arab homeland that present only a single point of view, including regime media outlets and party media outlets, but they enjoy no popularity, and even those who share the same point of view do not rely on them to know the truth.

We in the Arab homeland, or parts of it, used to listen to Israel Radio and the BBC’s London radio to learn some of the truth, because we did not trust official media, but people turned to Al Jazeera after its emergence, and it proved more objective and truthful than the BBC.

Forms of the War

The war on Al Jazeera takes several forms and colors, which I record as follows:

1. Pressuring the government of Qatar to close the channel, or to change its crew and turn it into just another satellite channel that lies and deceives like the others, or that focuses on songs, silly serials, clothing and shoe fashions. Qatar has faced a great deal of pressure, from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and America especially, but it has held firm, even though, in my conviction, it has advised those running the channel to tone down speaking the truth. I am convinced Al Jazeera does not tell the whole truth at all times.

2. Intimidating some Al Jazeera crew members by barring them from entering certain Arab countries, or expelling them, or waging media campaigns against them. Arab states have barred many Al Jazeera correspondents and anchors from entering their territory, and some, like Dr. Faisal al-Qassem, have faced broad media campaigns and personal defamation in official and party-affiliated Arab media loyal to the official regime.

Now Morocco is witnessing a media campaign against the channel, to justify withdrawing Al Jazeera workers’ work permits there. Al Jazeera as a whole faces broad media campaigns from politicians, intelligence agencies, and various media outlets, and faces a process of mobilizing the street against it by official bodies in the Arab fiefdoms.

3. The Western campaign against it, from America and Britain especially. Matters have overflowed among British and American officials to the point that they have trampled openly on the principles of democracy, attacking Al Jazeera and accusing it of terrorism, because it reported in detail on their various terrorist acts against Arabs and Muslims, exposing their intentions and their crimes against peoples. These officials have worked with all their might to silence Al Jazeera, and when they could not, they bombed its headquarters in Afghanistan, killing some of its crew members, and assaulted its offices and staff in Baghdad.

4. Closing offices and withdrawing work permits from Al Jazeera crew members in many Arab countries. The Jordanian regime closed Al Jazeera’s offices, and so did Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq, and so on. The Arab regimes have translated their grudges against Al Jazeera into suppression, closure, siege, and arrests. I do not have statistics on the cases of arrest, detention, and confiscation of filming equipment Al Jazeera crews have faced in various states, but they are numerous and ongoing, constituting a phenomenon confronting free journalistic performance.

5. Arresting ordinary people whom Al Jazeera interviews about issues unfolding in their countries. This is a devious act aimed at intimidating holders of the other opinion so that Al Jazeera cannot conduct interviews with them. The author of this article is one instance of this intimidation, since those who destroyed his car on June 14, 2007, threatened by gunfire that he must not appear on Al Jazeera’s screen.

6. Disrupting Al Jazeera’s broadcast. It is clear the Jordanian regime was involved in disrupting Al Jazeera’s broadcast during the World Cup, and perhaps the regime was not the decision-maker, since disrupting a broadcast requires special technology. What matters is that the land formally under the Jordanian regime’s control was used to disrupt the broadcast, in order to incite the channel’s viewing public against it because of its failure to fulfill its obligations toward its viewers, and to tarnish its reputation.

The Regimes’ Arguments

The Arab regimes and some Western states take measures against Al Jazeera, but do not clarify, with documentation, the reasons prompting them to punish it. The regimes present entirely undocumented accusations, deliberately using inciting, accusatory language without offering a single piece of evidence of Al Jazeera’s lack of professionalism in its coverage, or its bias toward one point of view at the expense of another.

The regimes resort to demagoguery in their justifications, while Al Jazeera presents its arguments on scholarly, professional grounds. In the end, the real charge remains that Al Jazeera broke the regimes’ monopoly on media, opening the doors to various opinions.

Al Jazeera’s Popularity

Although the war on Al Jazeera aims to negatively affect its popularity and reduce the numbers of those relying on it to know what is happening around them, it produces the opposite results, and the numbers of viewers and followers increase. It is enough for Al Jazeera that it is the Arab regimes themselves taking measures against it for its credibility to rise in the Arab countries and among the Arab citizen.

The mathematical equation is very simple: if the regimes hated at the popular level are the ones who hate Al Jazeera, then there is every reason to love Al Jazeera. In other words, the regimes harm themselves with every measure they take against Al Jazeera, and it might be wiser for them to leave Al Jazeera alone if they want their smear campaign to bear any fruit.

There are those who criticize Al Jazeera, and Al Jazeera is truly not above criticism, but as the poet says: “And if my condemnation comes from a deficient man, it is testimony that I am complete.”

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الحرب على الجزيرة” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.