 |
 |
 |
|
|
This picture provided by Al Jazeera, shows Shiulie Ghosh, left, and Sami Zeidan, right, during the first program presented by Al-Jazeera's English channel from television studios in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006.The new channel's programs focused on the Third World, screening grim images of Palestinian suffering and an upbeat take on an Islamic militia in Somalia. (AP)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Israel Insider staff and partners November 16, 2006 |
|
| |
Al-Jazeera's English-language channel began operating Wednesday, promising a fresh perspective on international news and competing with channels such as CNN. Even though virtually no American television viewers could see it due to its limited broadcasting ability, it's uncertain how Israel will fare in the media war once the channel runs successfully.
The network, which will also be available in Israel through cable or satellite, is an offshoot of the 10-year-old Arabic-language Al-Jazeera, which has angered leaders in both the Middle East and Washington.
Al-Jazeera, which is bankrolled by Qatar's royal family, said its signal would reach 80 million households with cable and satellite TV, mainly in the Middle East and Europe. Its chief competitors are CNN and the British Broadcasting Corp.
Al-Jazeera in Arabic, with approximately 50 million viewers across the Arab world, including Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, is currently shown in Israel and has an Israel/Palestine bureau based in Jerusalem, a very important Al-Jazeera news center.
Head of the Government Press Office Daniel Seaman expressed his satisfaction with the efforts of Al-Jazeera in Israel, despite the limited airtime and occasional mistranslation of Israeli spokespeople, saying that they're fairer to Israel than CNN or BBC.
"I have only the utmost respect for Al-Jazeera in Israel. They've tried their best to be fair, and even if I disagreed with their coverage at times, it was not one-sided. Given their audience, they show the Arab side, the Palestinian side of the conflict, but they also present Israel's side."
The Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Atira Oron, however, is wholly more critical of Al-Jazeera's news coverage, disagreeing that it is less biased than CNN and BBC, citing the example that during the Lebanon War, CNN and BBC went into Israeli bomb shelters, unlike Al-Jazeera.
Oron also said that Al-Jazeera emphasizes Arab casualties while exaggerating Israeli "threats" and "naturally" assumes Israel is to blame in Israeli-Arab conflicts.
"But this bias is diminishing," Oron continued, saying that the channel's reports "are careful to show the Israeli side, even if it isn't given that much time."
"Al Jazeera is the first Arab TV station to give full access to homegrown critics of Middle Eastern regimes (except the Qatari regime, its owner). This has won the station widespread praise for bringing a new, even revolutionary, freedom to Arab world debate. However, the dominant homegrown critics of Middle Eastern regimes happen to be Islamic fundamentalists, not democratic reformers, and while the reformers do get air time, the fundamentalists get much, much more. This can be defended as sound journalism - giving proportional weight to differing views - but it also serves the political ideology of Al Jazeera - and Qatar - which is Islamism. [...] Thus, Al Jazeera embodies something that is believed in the West to be a contradiction, an impossibility - democratic Islamism," reported the Jerusalem Post, explaining the theories of Haifa University communications Prof. Gabriel Weimann.
Weimann asserts that Al-Jazeera's bias is "pan-Arabic, pan-Islamic. It serves the Muslim world community. It certainly tends toward an anti-Western, anti-American, anti-Israeli view in its depiction of clashes between the West and the Islamic world. It clearly takes the Muslim side, the Palestinian side in those clashes."
While Al-Jazeera does bring to light the views of moderates in the Muslim world as well as Americans and Israelis, they run the risk of being charged with aiding terrorism.
"No one on Al Jazeera will ever speak in favor of terror, of course, yet the station airs interviews and tapes of Al Qaeda without any comment, without any critical discourse."
Weimann concluded that this will make the "information war" much more challenging for Israel, who is already combating harsh criticism for its current operation in Gaza, and who is often charged with having disproportionate responses to attacks.
"There will be a global channel in English that tends to be more pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli than the others, and it will not be preaching to the converted. It will not be trying to win over the Jewish community in the US or Europe. It will be speaking to a neutral audience, to the uncommitted, the uninvolved, the uninformed," Weimann continued. "Israel doesn't have an answer to it. Israel has no global TV channel."
It all depends on the success of Al-Jazeera in English, which so far has had a meager beginning. On top of it's lacking broadcasting capabilities, it is uncertain whether the American public will accept this different take on the news, with new perspective and more focus on the developing world.
AP contributed to this report.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
