TV with an anti-Egyptian message?

By Shaden Shehab

Two months ago, the channel hosted Adel Abdel-Meguid, an Islamist militant living in London who was sentenced to death in absentia by a military court in 1997 for his involvement in a conspiracy to bomb Cairo's Khan El-Khalili tourist bazaar. Abdel-Meguid, who is believed to be a close associate of Jihad leader Ayman El-Zawahri, talked about America's attempts to impose its hegemony over Arab and Muslim countries.

At the time, security sources said that Abdel-Meguid's arrival in Qatar and his programme appearance violated the Arab anti-terrorism pact signed in April. The incident was not the first of its kind. Following last November's Luxor massacre, Yasser Serri, who tops the list of London-based militants, appeared in another talk show.

And as Egypt was celebrating the silver jubilee of the October 1973 war, several of the channel's programmes debated whether it was a real war or merely a limited battle. The channel also devoted some of its programmes to criticising the late Presidents Anwar El-Sadat and Gamal Abdel-Nasser. It was only natural for Egyptian viewers and the press to arrive at the conclusion that the channel was being impartial.

The press linked the "campaign" against Egypt to the Qatari government. The channel is run by a board of directors led by Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al-Thani, head of the Qatari Information Institute. One member of the board is Sheikh Hamad bin Jabr Al-Thani, the Qatari foreign minister.

Egyptian-Qatari relations soured last November when Doha accused Cairo of lobbying the majority of Arab states to boycott, or send low-level delegations to, the fourth Middle East/North Africa (MENA IV) Economic Conference hosted by the small Gulf state. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the ruler of Qatar, also charged that Egyptian authorities were involved in a failed attempt to restore his overthrown father to the throne.

Egypt denied the two charges. It said it boycotted MENA IV to underline its disapproval of Israeli policy that is blocking Arab-Israeli peacemaking. Egypt also said it does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Egypt then went further, accusing some Qatari officials of financing Islamist militant organisations working against the Cairo government.

The dispute escalated into a heated war of words between the two countries until King Fahd of Saudi Arabia acted to contain the quarrel last December. But a few weeks later, Qatari authorities laid off about 700 Egyptian professionals, who worked for both the private and public sectors. Many of them had to leave at short notice.

Osama Saraya, chief editor of Al-Ahram Al-Arabi magazine, who was interviewed twice by Al-Jazziera, said that the "one good thing about the channel's programmes is their considerable professionalism and freedom." But, Saraya added, "its bias against Egypt is obvious and was clearly exposed in October." He explained that "many programmes attempted to portray the 1973 war as a limited military battle and deny the Egyptian victory. I took part in one of these shows via satellite and tried my best to prove the contrary but it was difficult, because on a satellite connection, you can only talk when they let you." He added that "they are adopting the Israeli policy of distorting facts, especially when it concerns Egypt, in order to sow the seeds of dissension and strife."

Mustafa Bakri, editor of the independent weekly newspaper Al-Osbou, said that "although Al-Jazziera enjoys a great deal of freedom, it abuses this freedom by attacking Egypt." He explained that the channel "hosts sources who have great credibility to present the argument against Egypt, while the pro-Egypt side is represented by unknown figures to ensure that their arguments are unconvincing." He also said that "the channel's hosting of terrorists sentenced in Egypt is a violation of the Arab extradition treaty and is completely unjustifiable."

Mohamed Jassem Al-Ali, Al-Jazziera's director, told Al-Ahram Weekly by telephone, that "we do not aim to bring out Egypt's negative aspects. We merely give the opportunity for the expression of opposing views." He affirmed that the channel "deals with all sorts of Arab news with great impartiality."

Al-Ali also insisted that the channel is independent and is not controlled by the Qatari government.

"This channel does not represent a specific country or government. We merely act as the Western media do. Why are they not blamed when they act similarly?"

Asked why Egypt is given the lion's share of criticism, Al-Ali said: "We deal with all kinds of subjects. We have even aired programmes on Qatar discussing issues like the economic summit and Israeli relations with the Gulf states."

He also said that the majority of the channel's 300 staff members are Egyptian. He described Al-Jazziera as "a unique experiment in the Arab world that respects the intelligence of the Arab viewer."