Al Jazeera, what is it up to? Tuesday, 17 May 2011 01:43

Noted commentator on Middle East, Robert Fisk, wrote in The Independent yesterday that Al Jazeera has not been covering the Bahrain story. I beg to differ. For about one week, I have been monitoring the news on Al Jazeera English and I am surprised by the time they have devoted to the country. In less than 3 months, Al Jazeera English had telecast around 62 stories on Bahrain.

On the other hand, Al Jazeera Arabic gave scant coverage to events in Bahrain. So it’s either too much or too little.

I don’t, however, understand the logic of the English channel in sending an undercover reporter, Charles Stratford, to Bahrain to make a series of exclusive reports about the treatment of the Shia protesters.

They started with an interview of schoolgirls who were allegedly beaten up by Bahrain security forces during their periodic raids on schools. That was strongly denied by the Bahrain government. A local newspaper Akhbar Al Khaleej published a cartoon that featured the Al Jazeera logo turning into a snake and attacking the island nation.

We understand the target audience of the two channels might be different, but they wear the same identity and should have the same vision and message so they can uphold their credibility.

Could it be that people in Al Jazeera English have their separate agenda?

I am for media freedom and I believe in letting all people express their opinions whatever race, nationality, ethnicity or creed they might belong to. However, the media should be responsible and give both sides an equal chance to express their views and opinions.

What we see in Al Jazeera English is that they are only presenting the point of view of the Shias in Bahrain. What about the other people who have equal stake in the country?

I wonder if any of the Qatari board members in Al Jazeera knew that they had an undercover reporter in Bahrain doing stories about the Shia issues while here in Qatar they detained a Swiss TV crew because they were filming without permission. Also, it’s quite surprising for the Bahrain government to say that they have no record of this undercover reporter entering their country.

This confuses us. We don’t know whether to believe Al Jazeera English or the Bahrain government.

All over the Arab world, we are asking for media freedom yet we are not concerned about the human value. I still remember the day, a long time ago, when I raised my hand and swore to consider human value more than any self-interest upon receiving my degree.

From what I see, both the English and Arabic Al Jazeera has been reporting news about wars and fighting almost so much that it will come to a point where it becomes boring and people no longer watch the news.

Why don’t they consider reporting how countries are rebuilding their societies? Instead of carrying the same news about Libya, Yemen, Syria and other Arab countries, the media should help in rebuilding the society in these countries by reporting on other sectors such as education, health, culture, sports and other areas that need attention.

We must still report unrest and fighting but we can take it from a different angle where we can contribute to the image of rebuilding these affected societies.

They should shed more light on these important sectors and not only focus on the bloodshed and the dictators and their regime, which could affect the image of Qatar and increasing hatred towards Qatari people.

Al Jazeera should consider the effect that their news reports have on their credibility, especially now that the “Arab Spring” is fading and the countries in turmoil, at least some, have seen change.