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RSF Asks U.S. To Respect Freedom of Press Concerning Al-Jazeera
PARIS, October 13 (IslamOnline) - In a letter sent to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters without Borders: RSF) expressed its concern about recent comments made about Al-Jazeera, the Arabic television channel based in Qatar.
"The United States is joining the many authoritarian regimes in the Middle East who have little respect for freedom of the press in their criticism of this channel," said Robert Ménard, general secretary of RSF.
He called on Powell to cease his country's pressure on the channel, saying that, "informational pluralism must be respected in all circumstances."
During his visit last week, Qatari Emir and the principal shareholder of al-Jazeera, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, was asked to put pressure on the channel to curb what the U.S. called "anti-American coverage".
RSF also expressed concern about the White House's request that American media no longer broadcast Osama bin Laden's speeches live, or in their entirety, claiming that they may contain hidden or coded messages for his partisans.
While U.S. intelligence services say they have not detected any such messages, Ménard asks U.S. authorities to show "moderation" and not use national security as an excuse to censor press coverage of this conflict.
On October 10th, Powell declared on the U.S. television channel CBS that Al Jazeera was giving a great deal of time and attention to some very "malicious" and "irresponsible" declarations, denouncing what he called the "provocative" rhetoric of the Qatari television channel.
"At best, Osama bin Laden's message is propaganda … At worst, he could be issuing orders to his followers to initiate such attacks," said Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman.
On October 11th, the Bush administration extended this request to the written press as well, asking the leading newspapers to not fully reproduce bin Laden's declarations.
Al-Jazeera broadcast, the day after the first U.S. strikes, Osama bin Laden's declarations promising that the United States would "never be safe".
"Yes to freedom, but we think it's beyond the pale to provide an open platform for these sort of violent ideas. We're concerned everywhere that Osama bin Laden not to be able to use the media to spread his ideas," said a representative of the State Department.
On October 3rd, Powell contacted Sheikh al-Thani to ask him to intercede and ask the editors of the channel to modify their coverage of the events.
The previous day, the American Embassy in Qatar accused Al -Jazeera of giving biased coverage to the September 11th attacks, as well as encouraging anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.
Replying to this criticism, Sheikh Hamad Ben Thamer al-Thani said on October 10th that the channel would continue "to follow the same professional path that Al-Jazeera has followed since its launch in 1996, as a media offering a margin of liberty in the Arab world."
Al-Jazeera, which has had a permanent bureau in Kabul since 1998, is one of the few media still present in the Afghan capital and in Kandahar (south of Afghanistan).
Known for its quality programs, professionalism and independence, "the CNN of the Arab world" is the most-watched channel in this part of the world. In recent years, it has been criticized by Arab countries (Morocco, Mauritania, Egypt, Tunisia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, etc.) for their coverage of government opposition groups.
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