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Arab Satellite Channel Closed Due To Abusive "Shoe Picture"
by Hossam
al-Sayed
DOHA, March 22 (IslamOnline) - A Qatar-based Arab satellite television channel said Thursday its office in the Palestinian Territories was closed due to footage it aired showing an archive picture of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat next to "a shoe".
Al-Jazeera, a controversial Arab satellite channel that has upset several Arab governments, said the incident occurred after "a verbal order from a security officer with Arafat's Palestinian Authority."
Armed Palestinian security forces shut down its bureau in the West Bank town of Ramallah prompting the channel to issue a statement on Wednesday denouncing the decision.
"Al-Jazeera was deeply shocked to see armed agents of the Palestinian security entering its offices in Ramallah and under threat of arms ordering its employees to stop working," the channel said in a statement. The action had no legal basis, the statement added.
"We have learnt from these employees that the Palestinian Authority was unhappy with the trailer for a documentary on the Lebanese war broadcast by the channel," the statement added.
Their action sought "to change the tone of a television program by resorting to force, something all free media reject," the station said.
Sources in Qatar told IslamOnline that the trailer showing Arafat's picture was only three seconds long and showed a protestor during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon carrying a picture of Arafat with a shoe on top of the portrait.
The channel said it responded saying that it often carried footage of Iraqis stomping a picture of former U.S. President George Bush, the elder, and that of Saddam Hussein's image littered with bullets in Kuwait.
An official with the channel said "it would be unprofessional to edit out the picture off the trailer since it's a part of a documentary that showed Palestinian history."
Al-Jazeera, founded in 1996 shortly after Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani dethroned his father and took power, has become immensely popular in the Arab world.
It has built a reputation for its frank coverage of social and political issues, although it is careful not to criticize Qatar itself and some of its close Gulf allies, specifically Saudi Arabia.
The channel has upset many other Arab leaders, however.
Although Qatar is one of the smallest states in the world, with a population of only 690,000, its support for the channel has put it under the spotlight.
In April, Libya abruptly withdrew its ambassador from the country after the Emirate's state-funded satellite television station, al-Jazeera, broadcast an interview with a Libyan opposition figure.
Shortly after that, the Iraqi government lodged a complaint with Qatari officials when al-Jazeera reported the enormous expenses of Saddam Hussein's lavish April 28th birthday celebration.
On May 2nd, Tunisia's ambassador complained to Qatar's foreign ministry about a program on al-Jazeera that accused his government of human rights violations.
A week later, the Iranian daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami, a conservative newspaper aligned with Ayatollah Khamenei, accused the station of "attributing false news to the esteemed leader of the revolution" after it reported that Khamenei favored the annulment of Iran's February parliamentary elections.
Attia al-Taib contributed to this report
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