Transcript Al Jazeera - The Official Site - Varsity.com

Al Jazeera
Means
“the peninsula” or “the island”
The most controversial television
station in the world
Located
Qatar
in the Middle East, country of
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The station gained worldwide attention
following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when
it broadcast video statements by Osama bin
Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders
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Al Jazeera channel was started in 1996
Al Jazeera's availability (via satellite) throughout
the Middle East changed the television
landscape of the region.
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Before Al Jazeera, many Middle Eastern citizens
were unable to watch TV channels other than
state-censored national TV stations.
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Censorship…The control of what people read,
write, see, or hear.
Done to protect a ruling authority from possible
downfall
Done to protect people from the wrong ideas
and messages. (As claimed by certain
governments)
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Also done to protect your rights of not being
exposed to indecent and obscene material
Carrollton High School does not censor
Censorship in the USA is illegal. Control over
indecent material is acceptable. Complete
banning of obscene material is acceptable.
Censorship was made illegal in the
Communications Act of 1934
Side note….Communications Act of 1934 was
updated with the Communications Act of 1996.
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It is widely believed internationally that
inhabitants of the Arab world are given limited
information by their governments and media,
and that what is conveyed is biased towards the
governments' views.
Beware of governments that control all the
media and don’t allow free press. Example is
Zimbabwe. There is only one point of view,
one truth, one reality…what the government
says.
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Al Jazeera is an international Arabic-language
24h news channel …the CNN of the Middle
East.
Al Jazeera introduced a level of freedom of
speech on TV that was previously unheard of in
many middle east countries.
Al Jazeera is popular because of its bold,
uncensored news coverage, its unbridled
political debates, and its call-in-show formats
that tackle a range of sensitive social, political,
and cultural issues.
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Al Jazeera was the only station allowed to have
live coverage of the USA attack on Afghanistan.
All other stations were told to get out.
Al Jazeera’s reporter Tayseer Allouni is in jail
for helping Al Qaeda.
The USA may have tried to get him in
Afghanistan by accidentally blowing up Al
Jazeera’s Kabul Bureau.
We also may have tried to get him when the
USA accidentally blew up Al Jazeera’s Baghdad
Bureau. (Along with silencing the station)
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It was later reported that President Bush
had wanted to bomb al-Jazeera's headquarters
in Qatar too, but had been discouraged from
doing so by the British prime minister, Tony
Blair.
What is a Television Bureau
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Where a tv station or tv network will set up an
office in another country. Done for better news
coverage. Al Jazeera has a bureau in Washington
DC
CNN Bureaus
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Havana, Cuba
Hong Kong, China (Asian regional headquarters)
Islamabad, Pakistan
Amman, Jordan (small bureau)
Istanbul, Turkey
Athens, Greece (small bureau)
Jakarta, Indonesia
Baghdad, Iraq
Jerusalem, Israel
Johannesburg, South Africa
Bangkok, Thailand
Lagos, Nigeria
Berlin, Germany
London, United Kingdom(Eu headquarters)
Beijing, China
Madrid, Spain
Beirut, Lebanon
Bogotá, Colombia (small bureau) Manila, Philippines (small bureau)
Mexico City, Mexico
Brussels, Belgium (small bureau)
Moscow, Russia
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nairobi, Kenya (small bureau)
Cairo, Egypt
New Delhi, India
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Rome, Italy
Frankfurt, Germany (small bureau) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (small bureau)
São Paulo, Brazil (small bureau)
Seoul, South Korea
Tokyo, Japan
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Al Jazeera has tried to live up to its motto: "The
Opinion and the Other Opinion" They also
follow "We get both sides of the story."
Thanks to its aggressive coverage, Al-Jazeera
claims at least 50-million viewers in the Arab
world and 175,000 who pay to watch it it on
cable in North America. Its Web site gets 17million hits a day.
Possible problems
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Al-Jazeera's alleged anti-American editorial bias.
The supposed connections of some reporters to
Al-Queda
Acting as a mouthpiece for Osama bin Laden
The extremely graphic pictures and videos that
are shown on the channel and how those images
affect their home audience and the world
audience.
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The CIA was concerned that bin Laden might
be sending secret messages through his
videotaped statements
Condoleeza Rice, the national security adviser,
called and visited with top American network
and newspaper representatives, urging them to
consider the dangers of airing bin Laden’s views.
Condoleeza Rice requested networks not to air
Al-Jazeera's bin Laden footage because he might
be transmitting coded messages, they
immediately said they wouldn't
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U.S. government officials asked Al Jazeera to not
air Osama’s videos in full as they may contain
secret messages to terrorists.
Journalists and others in the Arab world see the
United States as hypocritical for pressuring AlJazeera to modify its coverage. They say we
represent no censorship yet we are asking Al
Jazeera to censor.
Al Jazeera English
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Al Jazeera English is the world’s first global
English language news channel to be
headquartered in the Middle East.
The station claims to be the first global highdefinition television network.
The channel was launched on 15 November
2006.
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The channel had expected to reach around 40
million households, but it far exceeded that
launch target, reaching 80 million homes
The channel is now one of the three biggest
global English language 24 hour news channels,
the other two being BBC World and CNN
International
Al Jazeera English has 21 supporting bureaux
which gather and produce news.
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AJE will have broader horizons, aiming to draw
a billion-plus English speakers from Madagascar
to Maine -- for Muslims, yes, but also for anyone
else who wants another perspective on the day's
news.
In other words, AJE is hoping to become the
first non-Western source to challenge the global
info-supremacy of CNN and the BBC.
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has accused
al-Jazeera of "vicious lies" and "a pattern of
playing propaganda over and over" in its
coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And U.S. officials have been upset by footage of
American military deaths and al-Jazeera's
unstinting coverage of the wars' effect on
civilians.
American news channels tend to "show the
missiles taking off," "Al-Jazeera shows them
landing."
Al Hurra
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Is a United States-based satellite TV channel,
sponsored by the U.S. government.
Al Hurra (which means "the free one" in
Arabic) started broadcasting Valentine's Day
2004 as an answer to Al Jazeera’s unfavorable
reporting.
The station is forbidden from broadcasting
within the U.S. itself under the 1948 SmithMundt Act.
22 countries in the Middle East region
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US Information and Educational Exchange
Act of 1948 is also called the Smith-Mundt
Act
Signed into law by president Harry S. Truman
on January 27, 1948
The legislation funded global propaganda
outreach using all the latest communication
technologies.
Prohibited US distribution of information
intended for foreign audiences. Protection from
our own propaganda.
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Turned government-funded broadcasting and
information programs into a Cold War classified
weapon.
Our international radio station the VOA or
Voice of America may broadcast to other
countries and not to our own.
Radio Sawa is our arabic language radio station
in the Middle East. It falls under this act.
TV/RADIO MARTI…our Anti-Castro station
in Florida falls under this act.
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Alhurra has pledged to provide accurate and
balanced news. Arab audiences have been
skeptical of the channel's motives.
Alhurra’s broadcasting is varied, targeted at the
general public, particularly those under the age
of 30. Programs include entertainment,
documentaries, and news. Alhurra has expressed
their intention to be as unbiased as possible.
Propaganda
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Propaganda is a type of message aimed at
influencing the opinions or behavior of people.
Propaganda can be deliberately misleading
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"Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of
purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the
emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified
target audiences for ideological, political or commercial
purposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided
messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and
direct media channels. A propaganda organization
employs propagandists who engage in propagandism—the
applied creation and distribution of such forms of
persuasion."
—R.A. Nelson, A Chronology and Glossary of
Propaganda in the United States, 1996
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Alhurra's reporters are told not to refer to the
U.S. presence in Iraq as an occupation.
Those who set off explosive devices attached to
their bodies are called suicide bombers, not
martyrs."
Al Hurra reporters covering Iraq "focus on
more human-interest and positive stories. For
instance, 'electricity has arrived in this
neighborhood,' not 'this neighborhood still
doesn't have electricity'.
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The channel sees its role as promoting
democracy and winning over public opinion in
the Arab world.
They have 20 million viewers
They are not really effective with their
programming yet…still trying to figure out how
to approach the culture of their audience.