I’ve been meaning to give you a brief lowdown on Al Jazeera for a few days now, so here it is…
Al Jazeera is a news organization based in Doha, a very sleepy town in Qatar. It used to be regarded by the West with fear and distain, because it went through a phase of broadcasting dodgy video recordings of Osama Bin Laden and the like.
These days, however, they broadcast to millions of viewers all around the world (in Arabic and in English), employ hundreds of ex-BBC reporters and have a live feed into President Obama’s office at The White House.
It’s become famous for reporting news in Africa and the Middle East in great depth, independent of bias (they say) and for always gunning for democracy and free will.
Most of the other Arab networks are basically under the thumb of Arab leaders, which is why Libyan news channels broadcast nothing but pro-Gaddafi propaganda. Most of these leaders, Gaddafi included, blame all the recent protests and uprisings in the Middle East on Al Jazeera – for working people up and encouraging them to rebel.
But Al Jazeera doesn’t pander to the West either. Oh no. They accuse the British media of downplaying the devastation we have caused in Iraq and for failing to challenge our own leaders as much as we should, amongst other things.
One small fly in the ointment. The guy who bankrolls Al Jazeera is none other than the Emir of Qatar. A very wealthy autocrat who presides over a country with no free elections or the right to free speech.
Not long ago, WikiLeaks (which we talked about yesterday) published evidence that implied the Emir was using Al Jazeera’s mass influence as a bargaining chip. For example, promising to tone down coverage of certain Middle Eastern regimes in return for economic favours.
The rest of the news now… even more concentrated than usual:
Japan has moved the status of its nuclear nightmare up to its maximum level – now on par with Chernobyl. Quite what that means is unclear because it doesn’t seem to be as bad as Chernobyl was. Yet.
Moussa Koussa (Gaddafi’s right hand man who dumped him and fleed to Britain) is now travelling to Qatar, to meet with the Libyan rebels. Presumably to see if they’ll let him switch sides. Unlikely they will.
Egyptian former President Mubarak has suffered a heart attack. It happened whilst he was being questioned over murder and corruption allegations, and he is now in hospital recovering.
Finally, prominent atheist A C Grayling has produced a bible for people who don’t believe in God. It is called ‘The Good Book – A humanist bible’ and you can read more about it here.
Until tomorrow…
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