This article has been posted to DoctorZin’s New News Blog!
Posted on 08/07/2004 6:14:03 AM PDT by propertius
UPDATE 2-Iraq shuts al-Jazeera Baghdad office for a month (Updates with Al Jazeera comment)
BAGHDAD, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Iraq's interim government ordered Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite television network to close its Baghdad office for one month on Saturday, a move criticised as unjustifiable by the channel.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, confirming the decision at a news conference, said a commission had been monitoring Al Jazeera for the past four weeks to see whether it was inciting violence and hatred, and that the decision had been taken "to protect the people of Iraq".
"It's regrettable and we believe it's not justifiable," Al Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said. "This latest decision runs contrary to all the promises made by Iraqi authorities concerning freedom of expression and freedom of the press."
Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said this week that Arabic satellite channels were encouraging kidnappings by showing images of hostages threatened with executions.
Another government official at the press conference said the station had "encouraged criminals and gangsters" in Iraq.
Al Jazeera's Ballout denied the charge.
"We are not a political organisation that is for or against anybody. We display what happens on the ground as objectively as possible and in a balanced way," he said.
Ballout said the television would continue to cover events in Iraq despite the closure. "I'm not going to say it will be easy, but again a creative journalist will try to get a comprehensive and balanced story out there," he said.
Earlier this week, the station reported a videotaped statement from a militant group linked to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi saying it had released two Turkish drivers because their company agreed to stop working in Iraq.
Scores of hostages from two dozen countries have been seized in the past four months. Most have been freed but at least 10 have been killed, and at least 20 are still being held in Iraq.
Last month, Al Jazeera, accused by the United States of graphic and anti-American conflict coverage, unveiled a code of ethics it said would ensure balanced and sensitive reporting.
Jazeera won over millions of Arab viewers before and during the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan in 2001 after airing exclusive footage of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following the September 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.
(Additional reporting by Heba Kandil)
What does al Jazeera care? They can make up fiction just as easily from a different city.
mmm government controlling the press...mmmm that's good mr Goebbels.
You're comparing this to Goebble's?
Would the US had of allowed the Nazi press to operate freely in the US, broadcasting continuing propaganda?
I don't think so.
This is a similar situation, you hysterical freak.
Well, here in Iraq, we can get Fox News, but NOT al-Jazeera now.
Dig it.
Where do you stop?
The line is drawn when they incite terrorism.
For those of you who don't think there should be any line, why are you here? Shouldn't you be at some anarchists protest?
Agree. The next guys in power could use this as a precedent to shut down one of the "good guy" news outlets. Then what would everyone say?
That's a start, but they also need to expel all Al Jazeera reporters. Al Jazeera will just spin even more negatively now. When it comes to Iraq, Al Jazeera should get it's news the same way Iraqis do, from respectable news outlets.
Shouldn't that be Ballsout Jihad?
Some would be able to identify a similar pattern with the US media.
So any website owner that hosts a beheading video aught to be killed eh?
C'mon you cant really blame the distributer of such a video for the actions of the terrorists. Whether or not the unelected Iraqi government has the right to throw al-jazeera out of the country is one question, but to suggest we kill people who show video we disapprove of is ridiculous.
Now we all agree beheading anyone (especially an american) is obscene and those who commit such acts should be held responsible, but the act of reporting such an act must be protected lest we forget the horror which we are currently attempting to fight.
Whomever holds office will always try to stop the reporting of news which they feel portrays them poorly.
We can't let governments decide which news they deem acceptable to be shown and those they disagree with be shut down. If they have information which contradicts al-jazeera I'm sure they could find a way to distribute the truth rather than shutting down their opposition.
B U M P
Uh, we're not talking about a website. We're talking about THE public relations firm for the Jihadists. They have let their facilities (satellites, cameras, personnel, etc.) be used to further their cause of killing Americans. They are the enemy.
I don't subscribe to the same degree of seperation that you do, differentiating those who have the knife in their hands, those who hold the cameras, and those who run the video for all the world to see. To me, they are part of the same team - the one opposed to freedom. Nor do I subscribe to your equating broadcasting beheadings with free speech.
Whomever holds office will always try to stop the reporting of news which they feel portrays them poorly.
And just who is being portrayed poorly by the practice of broadcasting beheadings? I'm a firm believer in getting what you settle for. The longer we tolerate these broadcasts, the more kidnappings and threatened beheadings we'll have to suffer. I doubt it's the most morale-boosting stuff our troops have to watch.
What is your damage? AJ is the enemy and needs to be destroyed. DU misses you.
I'm glad we let the Iraqi's have their country back. They can do lots of stuff we can't, or won't.
The Ny Slimes should be on that list as well for supporting the terrorists.
This was a decision made by Iraqis, in what they think is in their best interests, for the situation at hand.
If they decide to stop broadcasting FoxNews, then that is also their decision.
The operative word is "they", not "us" in deciding what they want to do to move forward.
And how often do they protray President Bush in any favorable light? How about the United States of America?
Zero, zip, nada.
How often did they protray Saddam Hussein in an unfavorable light? How about the atrocities he committed, his sons committed, and their thugs committed upon Iraqi citizens?
Zero, zip, nada.
So, this is "fair and balanced" how?????
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