- DUBAI (Reuters) -- Arab satellite
televisions dismissed Monday U.S. accusations that their coverage from
Iraq was biased and incited violence against U.S. troops, saying they just
filled a vacuum left by the U.S. media.
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- Officials from Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera networks, which
have reported anti-U.S. attacks in Iraq and aired tapes by ousted leader
Saddam Hussein, were responding to remarks made on Sunday by U.S. Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowtiz.
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- They insisted their reports were accurate and reflected
events on the ground.
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- "We know that our coverage in Iraq is balanced and
unbiased and we are not instigating any violence," Salah Nejm, Al
Arabiya's news director told Reuters.
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- Wolfowitz said in an interview on Fox News Sunday the
two channels were guilty of "very biased reporting that has the effect
of inciting violence against our troops."
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- But Al Jazeera responded by accusing U.S. soldiers of
intimidating its staff in Iraq.
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- "In the past month alone, Al Jazeera's offices and
staff in Iraq have been subject to strafing by gunfire, death threats,
confiscation of news material and multiple detentions and arrests,"
Al Jazeera said in a statement which it said had been sent to the U.S.
embassy in Qatar, where the station is based.
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- BIN LADEN TAPES
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- Al Jazeera's news editor Saeed al-Shouli said U.S. anger
at his station, which he said "has been building up" since it
began airing exclusive tapes by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, was
recently stoked by an false attribution to a Jazeera report.
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- "I think what's reaching U.S. forces about Jazeera
has been misreported, maybe to scar our image," Shouli said. "If
you say the truth, you suffer. We try to picture things as they happen
on the ground."
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- Shouli said U.S. officials were falsely told that Al
Jazeera reported that U.S. forces had arrested prominent Shi'ite cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr, whereas Al Jazeera had actually said U.S. troops only
cordoned off Sadr's house.
-
- Al Jazeera, whose critical reporting has managed to win
it millions of viewers and raise the ire of most Arab governments during
its eight years on air, gained international fame after the September 11
attacks and the ensuing war in Afghanistan.
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- Shouli said Washington was angered at Al Jazeera's coverage
because it "exposed U.S. activity in Iraq, which otherwise goes unreported
by most U.S. media."
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- "Americans are irritated that we are clarifying
the facts. Arab networks were reporting the news in Iraq as it happens,"
he said.
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- Wolfowitz said in Sunday's interview Washington was talking
to unnamed governments to try to get more "balanced" coverage
of Iraq. One of the main owners of Dubai-based Al Arabiya is a Saudi businessman
with connections to the Saudi government.
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- ARAB SIDE OF THE STORY
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- Shouli said the scant coverage by U.S. media of the Arab
side of the story provided a vacuum which Arab stations like Al Jazeera
and Al Arabiya have filled.
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- During the U.S.-led war on Iraq, the Arab broadcasters
captured millions of viewers through their live coverage from Iraq and
interviews with ordinary Iraqis. Both stations also aired interviews with
former Iraqi officials and tapes by Saddam as well as anti-U.S. attacks.
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- Before the emergence of pan-Arab satellite televisions,
Arab audiences depended on Western television channels and the musty state-run
media of the Arab world.
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- Al Jazeera said Sunday U.S. forces had arrested their
correspondent and driver in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul while they
filmed an attack on American troops.
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- Earlier this month, Iraqi police arrested and later released
four of the Arab station's employees in Iraq, suspecting one of them of
inciting violence. Al Jazeera had said the earlier arrests were sparked
by tension with U.S. forces in Iraq over its coverage of attacks on American
troops.
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- © Reuters 2003. All rights reserved.
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- http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3171204
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