Posted on 06/23/2005 9:49:56 PM PDT by jmc1969
WASHINGTON - Iraq’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari blasted the Al Jazeera news channel and other Arab media Thursday for giving distorted coverage of Iraq’s troubles and encouraging “terrorism.”
Defending a ban on the pan-Arab network when challenged by an Al Jazeera reporter at an appearance in Washington, Jaafari said ”the Iraqi people hugely oppose this news channel.”
“Representatives of Al Jazeera have come to speak to me and I say to them that the problem Al Jazeera has, is not with the government it is with the Iraqi people,” Jaafari said at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
“The Iraqi people see Al Jazeera as it really is, an instrument or a tool to be used against Iraqi people. We inside Iraq see Al Jazeera as an instrument of distortion of the news. The Iraqi people hugely oppose this news channel,” he said.
“Only the negative aspects of Iraq are aired on Al Jazeera TV,” he added before widening his attack to other Arab media.
“Any distortion of the truth is viewed by the Iraqi people as something that is very negative and they will not accept this,” he said.
“Therefore we ask all media channels to speak the truth. Let them say all the things they want about the government and criticize it as much as they want, but they must be accurate.”
Jaafari said the media “distorts the truth and is a double edged sword.”
“It saddens me to say that some Arabic channels encourage terrorism,” he added.
“Whether they do it consciously or not, sometimes they call the criminals by colourful and heroic names such as “the resistance’.”
He accused Arabic media of failing to cover the raping and killing of women by criminals who then confess.
(Excerpt) Read more at khaleejtimes.com ...
They seem to be having the same problem that we are right now.
I'm watching the replay now on C_Span 2
I am honest to god surprised that this "news" station is still on the air. I would of bet money that someone would have taken it out by now.
The same problem has been going on here with our mainstream media. Wish he had included them but even if he didn't, those in the mainstream media must know inside themselves that they are seen for who they really are.
The Iraqi people are beginning to hate our media as much as we do.
I wonder if we could ask him to blast a large part of the American news media as well. For the same thing: distortion and encouraging terrorism.
Iraq is going to be just fine. Iran is going to blow, Syria pushed (hopefully) and the Saudis will have to crack down (I wish) else get embargoed (that would be interesting).
Oh well, that's my vision! lol
I tell 'em point blank: Because the news media is leftist and corrupt and they hate President Bush. And showing positive things happening in Iraq might make President Bush look good. They don't want that."
Linda Foley of "The Newspaper Guild" and her world-view is exactly the kind of thing that Jaafri is dealing with.
You may recall, Foley was the latest to claim journalists in Iraq were being targeted. In her non-apologetic screed she specifically speaks of Al-Jazeera's difficulties in Iraq:
http://www.newsguild.org/gr/gr_display.php?storyID=2328
dung.
Rightfully so!
Just today we heard of 4 Car bombs aimed at Shiite Mosques that killed dozens, nothing is said by Al-Jazeera or our MSM about the Korans that were desicrated in these attacks against the innocent
From another article. Laugh. Yeah, his hearts in the right place all right ;)
AZ, AJ and others are making Iraq into the most anti-AQ and anti-islamist country in the ME.
It is AQ's (and the Dems) worst nightmare, but was always part of the neo-con plan.
ping
Great answer Allegra.
Yeah, but that statement is not borne-out by their ratings. AJ is quite popular in Iraq.
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