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Reporting on Israel – Al Jazeera broadcasts like crazy – News

29 October 2023

Contents

Since the Hamas attack on Israel, the reporting of Western and Arab media has fundamentally differed. The majority of the latter take a clear position – against Israel and mostly in favor of Hamas. The leading news channel Al Jazeera is risking its reputation.

After Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, Arabic newspapers as well as radio and television stations took a position: not journalistically distant, but decidedly partisan. Channels like Al Mayadeen, which is close to Hezbollah, report particularly one-sidedly. Or Al Arabyia, which lives off Saudi money.

This is somewhat less pronounced at Al Jazeera, which has built a good reputation as one of the leading international news channels since 1996. But here too the drawback is clear.

Al Jazeera was founded in 1996 after a collaboration between the British BBC and a Saudi Arabian media group failed. The Emir of Qatar hired the reporters who had been laid off there and founded a new channel that was supposed to be journalistically independent, modeled on the BBC. The station initially took over reports from news agencies such as Reuters and AP unchanged and supplemented them with Arabic views.

More about the history and development of AlJazeera

Pro-Palestinian rallies from Brussels to Berlin to Cairo and Istanbul are often reported on for hours. Without any distance and usually without the Israeli perspective or Israeli victims and hostages even appearing. When Israelis are interviewed, they are usually very harsh. Or those who harshly criticize their own government are selected.

Individual positive examples – murky overall picture

Hamas, on the other hand, is given a broad platform and is never described as a terrorist organization. Hamas spokesmen are even allowed to give voice to the violent resistance. After all, at least in the English-speaking channel, a minimum of professionalism is maintained.

A moderator asked a Hamas leader how he justified violence against civilians. The Hamas leader brusquely said that was the wrong question. But the moderator asked questions several times, which resulted in a war of words. This is a positive example.

The overall picture, however, is rather murky. In doing so, Al Jazeera is risking its reputation. Director General Mustafa Souag may still assert – as he has done again and again for years, including to SRF – that his station works professionally and it will stay that way: “The state of Qatar finances Al Jazeera, but does not interfere at all in the reporting .»

Qatar and Al Jazeera are in the spotlight

Qatar as paymaster demands professional journalism. It was never completely believable. Now it’s obviously no longer true. Especially since anticipatory obedience in the editorial team is likely to play a role.

Legend:

The awarding of the 2022 Football World Cup to Qatar has brought the emirate into greater international focus.

AP Photo/Hassan Ammar

Questions about the independence of Al Jazeera was always there. There were never any critical reports about the small, rich gas emirate on the station. That wasn’t a bad thing as long as Qatar hardly featured in international media coverage and played no role on the world stage.

However, this changed with the hosting of the recent Football World Cup and with Qatar’s involvement as a mediator, for example in Afghanistan. The country suddenly became more important. And in the current escalation in the Middle East, the gas emirate is a key player as a major supporter of Hamas. Accordingly, Al Jazeera is also in the spotlight – and it doesn’t cut a particularly good figure.