Pro-US Coup At Al Jazeera?
BREAKING… HAS THERE BEEN A PRO-US COUP AT ALJAZEERA?
“Google News is carrying a report by Italy’s Ukunet that there has been a shakeup at the Al Jazeera network in Doha, Qatar with the removal of Managing Director Wadah Khanfer and the current Executive Board and control shifted to Qatar’s former Ambassador to Washington who is described as a close friend of leading US politicians. I am relaying this Friday morning report and hope to find more information to confirm the story. If true, this may mean the end of AlJazeera’s journalistic independence and current orientation. Was The Bush Administration behind it?”
The Qatar newspaper The Pininsula reported this:
“Doha • The Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday issued the Emiri Decision No 28 of the year 2007 forming Al Jazeera Satellite Network board of directors.
The Emiri decision provided that Al Jazeera board of directors be formed as follows: H E Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, Chairman; Ahmad Abdullah Al Kholeifi, Deputy Chairman and Managing Director; Hamad Abdul Aziz Al Kuwari, member; Abdullah Mubarak Al Kholeifi, member; Mahmoud Shamam, member; Abdul Aziz Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, member; and Mariam Rashed Yousuf Al-Khater member. The Emiri decision also provided that the board term would be three years.”
SOME CONTEXT: ALJAZEERA WAS FROZEN OUT OF THE US CABLE MARKET
AP reported in April:
“…no major cable or satellite provider in the US is carrying the channel, a decision the network blames on political pressure. US carriers, however, say there is simply no market.
Nearly100m households worldwide receive Al Jazeera’s English service, almost half as many as CNN, station executives say. Since January, it has been broadcasting news to 550,000 Israeli homes on Yes TV, the country’s largest cable provider.
‘It’s extraordinary that while the rest of the world is happy to watch us… the U.S. stands in splendid isolation,’ said Al Jazeera English managing director Nigel Parsons at the station’s headquarters in Qatar.
Station executives said they expected a dogged battle for American airwaves because Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel has been excoriated by the Bush administration as a mouthpiece for terrorists, including Al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden.
Still, No. 1 US cable provider Comcast Corporation, was ready to carry Al Jazeera English’s November debut in the Detroit area, Al Jazeera executives said.
But Comcast suddenly pulled out just before launch, Parsons said. He and Wadah Khanfar, managing director of Al Jazeera Arabic, believed the decision was spurred by US political opposition. ‘We suspect there was outside pressure, including of a political nature,’ Parsons said. But he noted he had no evidence of such pressure, and did not know whether pressure came from the US government, elected officials or lobby groups….”
Could there be a deal in the works?
A speculative suspicion: Al Jazeera offered limited carriage which would involve access to advertising in the US in exchange for a purge of its independent posture which often reports critically on US policy in the region? In other words, censor your journalists and we will reward you with an opportunity for commerce.
COINCIDENTALLY, US BACKED TV NETWORK NOW UNDER INVESTIGATION
Meanwhile, in addition to the threat against the most credible network in the Arab world is a report about the least credible. Arab News in Saudia Arabia has another, perhaps related, development:
US-Backed Arab TV Network to Be Investigated by Congress:
“WASHINGTON, 18 May 2007 — Al-Hurra, the Arabic language satellite television network set up by the US government to promote freedom and democracy in the Middle East, is to be investigated for possible irregularities, the State Department confirmed yesterday.
When the Bush administration launched Al Hurra TV in 2004, its aim was to promote America in the Muslim world. But now some lawmakers who funded it are calling for the resignation of the station’s news director.”
