Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, broadcasts a regular daily feed from Qatar’s Al-Jazeera English news service. The ABC also frequently uses Al-Jazeera stories in its news broadcasts. Following the recent terrorist attacks on French journalists and Jews, Al-Jazeera English’s Executive Producer advised its journalists to be neutral between the victims and the terrorists. This advice was subsequently leaked. The revelations in this advice should prompt the ABC to reconsider how and—indeed—if it continues to use its Al-Jazeera news feed. This Australian Government—like its Labor predecessor—classifies groups like Hamas and Islamic State as terrorist organisations. However, the Qatari Government, which has long hosted the head of the Hamas terrorist organisation Khaled Meshal owns and operates Al-Jazeera, has different views (see memritv.org/clip/en/4344.htm and reuters/article/2014/08/20/us-iraq-security-germany-qatar-idUSKBN0GK1I720140820). The leaked emails show the Qatari political elite seem to be, as I told today’s Australian, “batting for the other side”. I was further quoted in the Australian as saying “The attitude to the victims of this terrorism in Paris is scandalous and it is obvious that the ABC should consider the implications.” As a consequence of what appears to be a sick competition between Daesh (Islamic State) and Al-Qaeda to murder innocent citizens all over the world, and Qatar—including its broadcaster Al-Jazeera’s strange role in this—ABC Managing Director Mark Scott, as editor-in-chief of the ABC, (or if not him, the ABC Board) should take action regarding the ABC’s use of Al-Jazeera. At the very least, before each broadcast on ABC News 24 or news feeds on the ABC, an impartial ABC announcement should explain that Al-Jazeera is backed, based and financed by Qatar. To see a commentary on its own journalists pushing back against the Qatari leadership, read the following (which includes the original leaked email exchange).
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 02:47:54 +0000
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