If it was me calling the shots, their facilities would've been "MOAB'd" months ago.
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)
AT LAST ! Someone sees Al Jazeera for what it really is.
Wonder if Allawi can also shut down Al Jazeera in Canada & replace it with Fox News? ;-)
Good move by Iraq. They have plenty of publicatuions and free speech there without the Al Jiz pests making propaganda for the terrorists in Iraq.
Talk about understatements?
Yeah ... It may be hard when the Iraqi government has the U.S. military consistently homing in on your signal, and dropping high explosives on it.
Will they be allowed into the RNC convention???
Will al-Reuters be next?
And it's Iraq's government, no less.
Somebody slipped up big time...letting positive news about Iraq slip out into the media. How dare they??
We over here are thrilled with this news.
Looks like the Canadian cable companies have shut down Al Jazeera for themselves.
The CRTC decision allowed them to carry it but under conditions that required the cable operator to time-delay monitor the broadcasts 24/7 and to bleep out "any abusive comment".
The cable companies declined with thanks.
I'm hoping CNN will be next, but al-Rotters would be a good choice too.
If it was me calling the shots, their facilities would've been "MOAB'd" months ago.
comminications=communications (sorry)
Let's face it, after one of the hostages told authorities that the terrorists called in Al Jazeera to film one of those videos it's plain to see they are terrorist supporters.
Al-Jazeera is a Qatari based network. The US has a huge military presence in Qatar, and we are the guarantors of their security.
You'd think we'd lean on the Qatari government a bit to get them to tone down the obvious anti-American bias of their own network.
Now, they will probably arrest or shoot the terrorists, er reporters/photographers of this vile organization if seen on the streets in Iraq.
That will be another positive turn in the war. One can only guess how many of our warriors were set up to be killed by the IslamoPOS's with this organization.
You'd think we'd lean on the Qatari government a bit to get them to tone down the obvious anti-American bias of their own network.
Just my not so humble opinion - Broadcasting the beheading of American citizens should be grounds for immediate vaporization, regardless of where they hide.
As Ranger Capt. Augustus McRae said to Jake Spoon in Lonesome Dove:
"You know the rules, Jake. Ride with an outlaw, die with an outlaw".
And that's the problem, also seen with CNN and other Lefist organizations. They portray terrorism and other thuggery as being equivalent with the rest of civilization.
BWAHAHAHHAHA
I love it...next up, CNN.
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