Monday April 2

I was invited back to Al Jazeera’s annual conference dealing with a wide range of media issues. My attempt at live blogging some of the sessions may be read below. Yesterday, I toured the new Headquarters of Al Jazeera’s English Channel which still can’t be seen in our home of the brave and land of the free, The facility is state of the art with the latest technology and an impressive system of offering news around the clock Some of their programming comes out of Doha but they have three other bases too–Washington, London and Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. They have bureaus throughout the world includiing ten in Africa. The Channel prides itself in offering news from the South that rarely gets seen on BBC, CNN or Fox.

The staff is very international with former AP and Reuters execs in charge. It was great to run into Dave Marash who I once worked with at ABC. He did great reporting for years for Nightline and says he loves working for Jazeera.

Unfortunately, Americans can’t see AlJazeera. The cable companies claim that they have no spare capacity but most people here don’t beleve it. They believe their excision is political, a function of the Bush Administration campaign to demonize the Channel as “the Terror Network.”

I finally got to watch some of the English language programming–a mx of tradional news and documentaries and specials in my hotel room. I really didn’t watch it long enough to offer any fully formed thoughts but I definately feel they have a contribution to make to the global news flow and should be easier to access in the USSA.

Here’s my stab at live blogging. I will have more tomorrow.(Please forgive the typos; I am not a stenographer.)

Sunday, April 1

DAY ONE–SY HERSH IN DOHA

My News Dissector sweatshirt didn’t rate much notice as airport hospitality mavens pulled me around the crowds arriving tat the Doha airport in the state of Qutar. In just a few years, the Emir has created an instant first class airline with flights crisscrossing the third and first worlds. The terminal is still small and seems chaotic but I was pleased to have found the reception committee from the Al Jazeera network which invited me here to blog their third annunal forum,

The American muckraker Seymour Hersh is opening the session and Dahr Jamail, the indepdndent Iraq correspondent will be speakimg. So you can bet that there will be fireworks. AlJazeera has build a brand that reaches out to journalists wordwide, including critical ones like myself. So I was thrilled to come to report on the issues that are being debated and the state of Al Jazeera as it transforms itself from one Arabic speaking channel into a global multi-challel. Network. I will be updating as I go and also sharing my pespective because I have always been a better analyst than stenograoher.

The conference opens in Arabic (with translation) assessing the relationship of politics to the media, The host, an Aljazeera anchor quickly shifts into French and English
The Chairman of al Jazeers from the royal family opemsthe forum in the name of Go. A invocation also adopted by Wadah Khanfer, the journalist turned General Manager of Al Jazeera. He speeks of the criis in the world and the crisis in the media.
May the blessings of god be on on you all…..He speaks without notes,

He says media as to get to the truth while the authorities try to monopolize the truth….
He warns against journalists becoming conduits for official information He speaks up for accuracy and checking/double checking. He ,makes the point that the danger of news as fast paced leads to people forgetfulness. Journalists have to stand up to authorities and stand up and tell the truth. The serious challenge is the external one—the superficial media—and we have to go beyond it.

He is urging media to go deeper, and not to just carry the news that the authorities want,,, Journalism has to focus on the future as well, and is concerned about chasing news at the expense of context, He cites footage of planes taking off from carriers and watch resoluts on video screens and there was less coverage of the impact on people’s homes….The Human factor has to be put at the HEART of their work…..

Media organizations has turned into elites and are distant from viewers…this gathering is of the utmost imporante at this time of the world…

Introduces Sy Hersh:

SY HERSH

We don’t know how many bombs are used—no reports on how many sorties or what the casualties—he believes that after 9/11, and that Al Qaeda took over the white house….America is a reality for the whole world,,,says administration failed in country after country

Why do we do what we do?

What I insist on and my values are of integrity and truth…I have come to learn that the national security advisor and the white house are not honest….war after war, deceit after deceit,,,,collection of wrong headed claims….worse than Vietnam…

What we can do that needs to be don—we must hold the leadership to the highest standards in the same way we make demands of our own family—in the context of collapse of leadership, this profession is because we think we can make a difference…
All of us have this horrible job as the world collapses around us, we are bitchy to us ever
We are flawed You cut out all mentions of others—rather than credit another journalist, we took it out –he cites references Dahr Jamail and implies his reports on Dahr’s work has been edited out by his editors….

There is going to be more media visibility on all sides….

We have to play the role of the responsible parent—the government doesn’t play it—
Anymore….

The journalists in Egypt he was just with seemed more to inject more integrity into the process…

Our job is to do what we can—nothing noble us about us—American media did not do well after 911….

Calls for questions….

I asked about Iran—is there a possibility of imminent war? –he says that the US say they are hurting, worried, sanctions ect…..they are being squeezed….

He says that they are is holding the sailors provocatively—Mr cheney said all optoions are on the table….I will telll you again—there is no evidence of a secret bomb in iran–

He believes Iran is saying—bring it on….testing the US and UK—and the Iranians have a formidable force –he claims that the US is vulnerable….He says bombing will not work—

He says to fight Iran, you have to send marines in….He says that l800 Marines are ready to go—he says that bombing is not enough

We are so susceptible to propaganda….We are in a war for truth versus propaganda…I am anti-government…we have a buden—a noble cause for all of us…

Do you see broadcasters able to be impractial?

A: Are you kidding me? No way.

Is it possible to have standards….

He says there is racism, in the US media and ignorance in the audience….

It is always going to be awful and and discouraging—all you can do is chip away

What you can understand,,,many people felt bush had to win in 2004 because people had to go to the bottom with Bush to turrn him against it

There will always be an enormous discrepancy…..between east and west….you work with what you have—

NO ONE IS FOLLOWING ME AND NO ONE IS REPRESING ME

–often my stories are ignored in America….systematic abuses ordered from the top—people know they can come to me and I can take into to their sources,,,,You cannot exist without unnamed sources –need access to officials—he says nazrulla is a visionary
and is being driven by the US to become a terrorist….

ETHAN ZIMMERMAN

Will journalist stand up for rights of bloggers..(Cites Egypt!)

Hersh says journalists are jungalistic, turf oriented , bitchy, don’t support other journalists ,,,, Bloggers are new—sometimes wrong….but increasingly very interesting….

This is admittedly rought–I am transcribing and trying to get the main points….Sy Seemed to want to get off the stage to hear the new planel……

FIRST PANEL
Again, I am moving fast and may have errors that I have yet to correct
Discussion of Parachute Journalism versus In Depth coverage

Moderator Rageh Omarr, ex BBC—Now AlJazeera

l. MARTIN BELL—34 yr veteran of BBC—Creation of AJ English took longer than pregnancy of an elephant….he is a parachutist—interntaional journalists work in countries other than their own…I we have to be suspicious of politicians..we have to go forward of with sympathy and caring—wants end to inauthenticity of journalism, opposes standing on rooftops and get down in the streets…opposes cut throat competition…need more cooperation…

“f you are as a journalist not arrested regularly, you are not doing your job”—you have tow allegiances—to the audience and the truth…we are all foreigners in covering the news

2. DAHR JAMAIL (US INDY JOURNALIST)—He saw discrepancy in the news—state propagandists are what many corporate journalists have become…I went to report directly from the streets—I was in Baghdad…was hearing stories of artists—late nov 2003 about torture—people called Baghad airport Guantanamo because of torture there—I sent report of torture to l50 newspapers , 154 foreign editors—NOT ONE REPSONSE……disparity between what passes for news and journalism and reality….

3. FAHMY HOWEITY (Al AHRAM) ….speaks of pressures on Arab journalist

4.SAMIR AITA. OF LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE
The first challenge is to capture the reality and how to reach them…Le Monde Diplomatique comes out in 64 languages—you need researchers to explain the background which is complex—-

5. Abdel Wahab Badrakhan, EDITOR ELECT OF AL JAZEERA NEWSPAPER
Spreading democracy in this part of the world has been disappointing. Sees Blogs as offering background on reality of situation

Dahr –media is in crisis—it deserves to be in a crisis—leaves door open to new possibilities….

AITA speaks of media monopolies as an obstacle in getting out good journalism

Martin Bell—Human nature is unreconstructed…it depends on the reporter—responsibility of reporter is greater than it ever was…says that the American media was UNHINGED by 911—he says that there should be more focus on underreported conflicts…

I raised a question about going outside the box and involving viewers and readers as citizens, not just consumer–and find ways to market the values of indebth journalism to them,,,,,,I cited the blogging phenomenon in which 50 million people are showing that they want to participate in the media

Martin Bell agreed that some media organizations are moving in this direction…..

ALJAZEERA NEW ERA–MOVING BEYOND TV

A briefing on AJ’s new direction

Al Jazeera is moving into a new era, beyond TV

We speak to an audience now but we want to interact with people. We want al jazeera to be the connection between people

New Media –connecting to ne audiences

Tehnology druven

‘Mobile
Internet
Social networking

Get new content
Socially Driven

We want to go from
Shift goal from raising average revenue per user to get more attention for viewers

5 different platforms
TV
Internet
Mobile
TV
Social Networking
Build new viewers

Al Jazeera NEW ERA

Create Edit publish Connect

I missed part of a panel so I am sharing Ethan Zuckernan’s report for GlobalVoices Online:

“Politics, media and misinformation” - a panel that contained all three…
Filed under: Media — Ethan @ 5:15 pm
Faisal al-Qassem is (in)famous for the provocative tyle of his Al Jazeera show, “The Opposite Direction”. The moderator of the “Politics, Media and Misinformation” panel warns him that the conference “framework doesn’t allow his usual confrontational style.” Perhaps he missed the memo - his talk is one of the most provocative so far, throwing bombs at the western media, or at his picture of it. He wonders, “Why are we still disagreeing on the role of western media in the third world? Western media is not interested in democracy except within its own borders… just as there is no democracy in international relations, there’s no democracy in coverage of international relations.”

Much of his argument focuses on Palestine. He quotes an unnamed American journalist who visited Palestine and came back reporting, “I saw hell with my own eyes.” al-Qassem said he was looking forward to his piece. He responded, “If I wrote a single sentence about what I saw in Palestine, I would not stay in my job.” The western media, he asserts, covers Palestine from Israeli eyes. We’ve heard thousands of voices in the western media singing the same chorus. How many voices dissented from the chorus in the run-up to the Iraq war - “you can count the dissenters on the fingers of a single hand.” Even respected voices have joined the chorus: “Thomas Friedman’s rhetoric makes us pray for George Bush.”

Abu Ghraib is “one of the biggest media tricks believed by the Arab media.” It’s only the tip of the iceberg, one tenth above the water, nine tenths below. “Abu Ghraib is nothing compared to the rest of US dictatorship and facism, in comparison to the millions of displaced Iraqis. Abu Ghraib is a tree covering the forest behind it.” He quotes Amy Goodman’s study which argues that 395 of 400 commentators on mainstream US stations before the Iraq war supported the invasion. “What integrity, what freedom, what independence” are we celebrating in the Western media?

In comparison to al-Qassem’s rant, many of the other speaker’s remarks are quite short. Michael Oeskes, executive editor of the International Herald Tribune, talks about “transparency and sin”. The biggest sin that journalists commit is oversimplification. It’s understandable, as the actual job of journalists is to simplify, clarify and explain.

Steve Clark, the news director of Al Jazeera, argues that “Doha is the epicenter of a seismic shift in journalism”, a “formidable, irresistable force” based in the developing world which seems to “reverse the flow of news from the South to the North”. The goal is to provide coverage of Africa that goes beyond AIDS, famine and war - Al Jazeera is doing this with eight bureaus in Africa, with a goal of having ten by year’s end. “We want to be in places where others are not”, like Zimbabwe, where Clark promises “the definitive interview with the President of that country a few days from now.” He notes that Al Jazeera is being welcomed in Latin America and Asia, that there’s a perception of Al Jazeera as “a campaigning, positive force”. One of the open questions for Al Jazeera is “why the West is wary, while the South is so welcoming.”

Haroon Siddiqui of the Toronto Star offers some principles of the “reality of corporate-sponsored media”:
- All journalism is subjective and biased, and reflects the traits and biases of reporters
- All journalism is parochial, and can be more so in times of war. “Journalism can become jingoism, and this is even starting to happen in Canada” with national military involvement in Afghanistan.
- Terrorism is real, and it can’t be wished away/
- Most western media is pro-American and pro-Israeli because that’s what the public opinion is.

The dominant narrative in the West has been that of the West under siege from Muslim terrorists. “But Muslims have been under siege ever since 9/11″, with up to 600,000 innocent civilians killed in Iraq - “we don’t even care enough to count the dead properly” in Afghanistan. This is giving states a license to do what they will in places like Palestine, Thailand, Chechnya and other places where crackdowns on “terror” can be crackdowns on Muslims as a whole/

Siddiqui argues that more Muslims have died than non-Muslims in acts of terror in Madrid, the UK, the US, not even counting terror attacks aimed at fellow Muslims. There’s a laying of collective guilt on Muslims, he argues - he cites a quote from Anne Frank: “When a Christian does something wrong, it’s the fault of that Christian, but when a Jew does something wrong, it’s the fault of all Jews.” He argues that this now applies to Muslims: “The crazy act of one Muslim is th fault of all Muslims.” The west is in a hunt for “moderate Muslims”, but it’s hard to know how we define that group. “99.9% of Muslims oppose terrorism.” But 99.9% don’t agree with or trust Bush, Blair and Israel. So

AFTERNOON PANEL—A debate over the plans by the BBC to launch an Arabic language station…..The debate was furious even as the BBC man present insisted this is not politial, not designed to advance the government’s interest. This argument prompted a storm of debate with many questioning BBC’ motives, while others expressed fear that this new service will undermine Arab broadcasters. The subttext here was no explored –many of Al Jazeera’s original journalists were trained by BBC which pulled out of the region n the 90’s. Hugh Miles, the author of an excellent book on AlJazeera tells this story in detail. He prodded the BBC man to explaim what their strategy and intentions are—but he did not receive a reply. Is the BBC seeking to undermine Al Jazeera by competing with it? Clearly this debate will continue. But as media forms multiply, the BBC is not likely necessarily to be any more successful than the US backed Al Hurrah channel has been.

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