tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/al-jazeera-7667/articlesAl Jazeera – La Conversation2022-12-12T19:02:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1963582022-12-12T19:02:59Z2022-12-12T19:02:59ZIs it ever okay for journalists to lie to get a story?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500321/original/file-20221212-97751-s12rbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a time of <a href="https://www.edelman.com.au/trust-barometer-2022-australia#:%7E:text=Trust%20in%20all%20media%20sources%20has%20fallen%2C%20with,media%20by%20only%2024%25%20of%20Australians%20%28-8%20points%29.">falling trust</a> in the news media, it is vital journalists do not engage in news-gathering methods that further harm their credibility. Thanks to the rise of social media, misinformation and disinformation are rampant. Trust in news matters, so we can tell fact from fiction. Without it, democracy suffers.</p>
<p>In our new book, Undercover Reporting, Deception and Betrayal in Journalism, we ask whether deception is ever an acceptable method for journalists to use. In other words, is it ever okay to lie to a target to get a story?</p>
<p>We find it can be ethically justifiable under very specific conditions. We offer a six-point checklist for journalists (and the audience) to test if deception and betrayal are warranted. </p>
<p>Deception is one of the most common ethical problems in journalism. It ranges in seriousness from misrepresentation to the use of undercover reporting. </p>
<p>In fact, it is so common that some argue it is inherent in what journalists do. The late American writer and journalist Janet Malcolm, for instance, in her renowned book <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/106480/the-journalist-and-the-murderer-by-janet-malcolm/">The Journalist and the Murderer</a>, said in her opening paragraph:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself [sic] to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust, and betraying them without remorse.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While we argue Malcolm pushes her argument too far, we present a range of case studies that show not only the range of deceptive practices in contemporary journalism, but also their seriousness. </p>
<p>Three of the case studies are drawn from high-profile undercover operations or acts of deception. </p>
<p>One concerns the use by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebook">Cambridge Analytica</a> of data gathered by Facebook on 87 million of its users worldwide. These data were used to influence elections in several countries, including the United States in 2016.</p>
<p>Another involved the infiltration by <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/al-jazeera-journo-defends-one-nation-sting/ff384357-35be-4247-bd94-078c2ade0572#:%7E:text=Al%20Jazeera%20reporter%20Rodger%20Muller%20posed%20as%20the,talking%20about%20getting%20millions%20in%20donations%20from%20them.">Al Jazeera</a> of the National Rifle Association in the US. It then repeated this with the One Nation party in Australia in 2019.</p>
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<p>The third case is the deception and betrayal inflicted on thousands of innocent people in Britain by Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper in hacking their mobile phones. This is perhaps the most egregious example of journalists failing their ethical duty in Britain in the past century. </p>
<p>From our examination of these cases, including interviews with key journalists, and building on the work of two distinguished American journalists and scholars, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/95291/the-elements-of-journalism-by-bill-kovach-and-tom-rosenstiel/">Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel</a>, we developed our six-point framework for assessing the ethical justification for the use of undercover techniques, including those of masquerade and entrapment.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hacking-trial-verdict-coulson-guilty-and-brooks-cleared-but-end-of-an-era-for-the-red-tops-27753">Hacking trial verdict: Coulson guilty and Brooks cleared, but end of an era for the red tops</a>
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<p>Using this test, we concluded that the operation against Cambridge Analytica was ethically justified. It told the public important truths that we would not otherwise have known. The most notable of these was that Cambridge Analytica was in the business of interfering in sovereign elections – a direct threat to democratic wellbeing. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500317/original/file-20221212-90872-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500317/original/file-20221212-90872-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500317/original/file-20221212-90872-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500317/original/file-20221212-90872-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500317/original/file-20221212-90872-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500317/original/file-20221212-90872-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500317/original/file-20221212-90872-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">News of the World hacking the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler is an example of when deception in journalism is completely unjustifiable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But we also find that the operations against the NRA and One Nation were not justifiable; nor in any way could the phone hacking of celebrities and ordinary citizens such as the murdered schoolgirl <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/28/world/europe/milly-dowler-profile/index.html">Milly Dowler</a> ever be justified to produce stories for News of the World. </p>
<p>Our framework consists of these six questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is the information sufficiently vital to the public interest to justify deception?</p></li>
<li><p>Were other methods considered and was deception the only way to get the story?</p></li>
<li><p>Was the use of deception revealed to the audience and the reasons explained?</p></li>
<li><p>Were there reasonable grounds for suspecting the target of the deception was engaged in activity contrary to the public interest?</p></li>
<li><p>Was the operation carried out with a risk strategy so it would not imperil a formal investigation by competent authorities?</p></li>
<li><p>Did the test of what is “sufficiently vital” to the public interest include an objective assessment of harm or wrongdoing?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>We consider a further case study to look at other aspects of deception and betrayal.</p>
<p>It concerns the deceptive conduct that goes under the general name of “hybrid journalism”. This is where advertising is presented in a way that is difficult to distinguish from news.</p>
<p>It goes under a variety of names such as “branded content”, “sponsored content” or “native advertising”. More recently, another label has come into fashion: “From our partners”. Reputable platforms use typography that distinguishes this from news content, but less reputable ones make it difficult to discern one from the other.</p>
<p>Journalists also engage in a range of more everyday deceptive practices. These include failing to declare oneself as a journalist; attempting to ingratiate oneself with a person by feigning a romantic interest in them; agreeing to publish information known to be untrue in order to serve the interests of a valued source; and ambushing a subject by having a microphone open or a camera rolling when the subject has no reason to think they are being recorded.</p>
<p>As these case studies show, deception and betrayal in journalism take many forms, and the ethical decisions surrounding them are far from straightforward. However, they are not inherent to the practice of journalism. Whether they are justifiable must be closely scrutinised, because the public’s trust in the media is at stake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new book argues that very rarely it is ethically justifiable to deceive to get a story. But mostly it’s a dangerous and harmful practice that adds to the public’s mistrust of the media.Andrea Carson, Associate Professor, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe UniversityDenis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1627722021-06-15T11:45:50Z2021-06-15T11:45:50ZGB News: production teething troubles – but success will depend on quality of the journalism<p>Launch night on the UK’s latest broadcast news network, GB News, was a rough night to be a sound operator. The much-trailed channel went on-air at 8pm on Sunday June 13 with a mission statement delivered by its company chairman and principal political presenter Andrew Neil.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, his sound was “out of sync”. The audio that viewers heard at home ran slightly behind the movement of his lips, which was disconcerting for viewers. A corrected version was later uploaded to Twitter.</p>
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<p>It was not the only technical issue to blight the launch night. Microphones failed to work, mistimed programmes were cut short by ad breaks, and presenters seemed unsure which camera to look at or when they were supposed to speak.</p>
<p>Delivered from a set that appeared poorly lit and without the slick production skills we have become accustomed to on television news, it prompted viewers to snipe on Twitter about “student television”.</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jun/13/gb-news-review-andrew-neils-alternative-bbc-utterly-deadly-stuff">newspaper reviewers mocked</a> the gap between its lofty ambitions and poor application.</p>
<p>On Twitter, veteran presenter Alastair Stewart took some of the critics to task.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1404355877407232001"}"></div></p>
<p>Television news is a team effort. The programmes viewers see at home are made by producers, directors, sound people and designers. It is an enormously complex logistical operation. Launching a new channel involves people physically building studios and infrastructure at the same time as training programme teams on new production technology. The expertise needed to keep a channel smoothly transmitting takes time to build up.</p>
<p>Channel launches are always fraught events, technology does not always keep up with the management’s ambitious editorial visions. When I was a producer at ITN, I worked on the launch of its rolling news channel. With a new computerised playout system it was ground-breaking, removing the need to use videotape in programme production.</p>
<p>But the newly developed digital video servers were unreliable. They would frequently crash, threatening to take the channel entirely off-air. When it happened, the director would ask the presenter to read a standby script and play a long back-up report while the IT team rebooted the server. On one memorable occasion a presenter who had knocked her paper copy of the script off the desk had to duck out of shot and, while still live on-air, scrabble around on the floor to retrieve it.</p>
<h2>Do not adjust your set</h2>
<p>GB News is not the first news service to face criticism for launch problems. Even well-funded operations such as Al Jazeera English have had issues. It was months late on-air because of behind-the-scenes technical faults. And to compound the problem the channel <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/nov/14/tvnews.television1">changed its name</a> from Al Jazeera International just before it was due to go live. Channel 4 News, Sky News and many more have had technical challenges to overcome before the procedures of broadcasting become ingrained.</p>
<p>For television professionals, “production value” – the technical aspects of programme creation – is important. Flawless presentation is associated with professionalism and quality. For the audience, these things seem to have changed over time. </p>
<p>Back in 2011, a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/107769901108800404?casa_token=Y5Is-6kMrs0AAAAA:X_Tojoj_MMcxs5UYR_yQbr9lFvBS4cWVfbI9DKHTSuO2K_EcQ728lD-nT0IJNEElYRSeSnOf_Qe0kZQ">study by</a> US media scholars R Glenn Cummins and Todd Chambers found viewers do recognise variation in production value and tend to judge stories high in production value as more credible than identical stories that are low in production value.</p>
<p>But audiences have grown used to seeing eye-witness video shot on phones and, during the pandemic, interviews filmed on Zoom or Skype. During the Iraq war when phone-quality video was starting to be used on television news for the first time, some TV news engineers were worried that the regulator would act against the use of such low production quality video. Changes in <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Audience-views-on-user-generated-content%3A-exploring-Wahl%E2%80%90Jorgensen-Williams/2e08e7f99fe5cf1f0c401035ce93a3a7439158fb">audience taste</a> and improvements in technology have made such concerns irrelevant.</p>
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<img alt="Image of UK radio presenter James O'Brien taken from his Twitter feed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406440/original/file-20210615-23-1ephcdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406440/original/file-20210615-23-1ephcdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406440/original/file-20210615-23-1ephcdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406440/original/file-20210615-23-1ephcdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406440/original/file-20210615-23-1ephcdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406440/original/file-20210615-23-1ephcdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406440/original/file-20210615-23-1ephcdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Video hasn’t killed this radio star: James O'Brien on LBC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter</span></span>
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<p>But that is not to say that there is not value in a well-produced programme and a well-designed set. Look at the way in which LBC has pioneered visualised radio for social media producing high-quality clips of its marquee presenters, including James O'Brien and Nick Ferrari, for consumption on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Brightly lit studios, with prominent branding, make it appealing to watch as well as listen to. Talk Radio and Times Radio have quickly learned the same lessons. GB News also clearly hopes to maximise social media impact as it builds a loyal audience.</p>
<p>GB News has gone from an idea to a channel during the pandemic. Its view of polemical television is not one that appeals to everyone, but to condemn it for technical mistakes during the first days on-air is unfair and short-sighted. As the days turn to weeks and months it is likely to resolve the technical problems, and see its presenters and producers grow in confidence. </p>
<p>It faces many challenges in the months ahead as it tries to develop a different style of profitable TV news. Getting right the technical aspects of production seems one of the easier ones to overcome.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt Walsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The UK’s latest news channel has been criticised for poor production values. But do viewers really care?Matt Walsh, Head of the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1535532021-01-21T14:36:00Z2021-01-21T14:36:00ZGulf blockade: Qatar hugs and makes up with its warring neighbours – but will it last?<p>Shortly after four Arab countries – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt – imposed an embargo on Qatar in 2017, I flew into the country’s capital Doha. Hamad airport – usually buzzing with visitors from the Gulf countries (<a href="https://qatar-tourism.com/large-influx-saudi-visitors-to-qatar-drives-recent-surge-in-tourism/">one of every four visitors</a> to Qatar in 2015 came from Saudi Arabia) – was eerily quiet.</p>
<p>The four countries <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-55538792">severed ties with Qatar</a> in June 2017 after they accused Doha of supporting terrorism. They demanded the shutdown of Qatari news network Al Jazeera as well as calling on the country to downgrade its relations with Iran. Doha defiantly rejected the accusations and agreed to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/04/breakthrough-in-qatar-dispute-after-fruitful-talks-to-end-conflict">mediation from Kuwait and the US</a> to end the standoff.</p>
<p>Qatar has estimated its losses from the blockade in the billions of dollars – citing factors such as “industrial-scale <a href="https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/bein-sports-lays-off-300-jobs-qatar-piracy-beoutq-arabsat">theft of content</a> from its sports broadcaster BeIN by rival Saudi network BeoutQ and the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2019/4/8/qatar-sues-uae-saudi-luxembourg-banks-over-riyal-manipulation">manipulation of its currency</a> by the four countries. So, when they agreed on January 5 to lift the embargo and restore diplomatic relations with Qatar, all sides were keenly anticipating any economic benefits the restored detente might bring.</p>
<p>Qatar may be the smallest of the Gulf states – but it’s the richest. So when, hours after the agreement, foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ea1e7058-960d-416c-93dc-f4f8c7945c12">talked about</a> the possibility of the country’s sovereign wealth fund investing in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, his hint would have been well received in Riyadh.</p>
<p>Dangling the carrot of investment is a good way of appeasing Saudi Arabia, which is keen to attract foreign investment to back Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s grandiose modernisation projects as well as respond to the country’s long-term need to secure new export markets and diversify its oil-dependent economy.</p>
<h2>Fraternal relations</h2>
<p>But the biggest sign of the new detente has so far been in the tone of Qatar’s news media. Top of the list of the 13 demands placed on Qatar by the four countries was shutting down Al Jazeera. </p>
<p>Qatar didn’t shut the network down – but watching the network in the days after the blockade ended, one could feel the difference. Bulletins no longer include regular news on "violations” by the Saudi regime. The channel even rebranded the Saudi Crown Prince, who it had vociferously <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zcRatILiP0">attacked</a> just a few weeks ago for “tarnishing the image of the Saudi state”. Now Bin Salman is represented as a rising peacemaker engaged in relations of “fraternity”. This was symbolically reflected in the way he hugged Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani when the Qatari emir arrived in Riyadh for their meeting on the sidelines of the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Saudi Arabia on January 5.</p>
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<p>Coverage of Qatar by Saudi network Al Arabiya has also softened considerably, something picked up on <a href="https://www.bbc.com/arabic/media-55593393">by the BBC</a>, which even hosted analysts to comment of the repeatedly screened scene of the hugging between the two leaders. “It was a hot hugging”, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FHlXl_VfKc">commented</a> one analyst, of the enthusiastic way the two leaders embraced when meeting at the airport in Riyadh.</p>
<p>The reconciliation has brought a sense of relief in all four countries. Ordinary people paid a deep humanitarian price – many are <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/6/9/saudi-led-blockade-on-qatar-breaking-up-families">linked by close tribal ties</a> and there are thousands of cases of cross-border intermarriage (to give you an idea of how close the Saudi Arabia and Qatar are, consider that it takes just an hour to drive from Doha to Saudi territory).</p>
<p>In Qatar, I heard many stories of families split apart when Qatari nationals were ordered to leave their three Gulf neighbours within 14 days. More than 12,000 residents in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE were also ordered to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/6/9/saudi-led-blockade-on-qatar-breaking-up-families">leave Qatar</a>. Social media is now full of videos of families jubilantly crossing “Abu Samra”, the land border between Saudi Arabia and Qatar within hours of the agreement.</p>
<h2>Happy talk</h2>
<p>This may all sound like a return to normality, but sceptics pointed to the fact that, while the two feuding leaders talked of “brotherly unity” and desires for “Gulf unity”, neither mentioned an agreement on any of the issues that caused the crisis. On the one hand, everyone’s a winner – but, on the other, we don’t know how or why. The situation has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/05/qatar-and-saudi-arabia-breakthrough-is-more-exhaustion-than-compromise">been described as</a> a “detente borne more of exhaustion than compromise”. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-40378221">13 demands</a> made by the other Gulf states of Qatar remain unmet. For example, the Qatari foreign minister <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ea1e7058-960d-416c-93dc-f4f8c7945c12">has already scotched</a> a demand for Qatar to reduce its ties with Iran by shutting down diplomatic posts in Iran or expelling members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, saying a couple of days after the agreement that his country would not alter relations with Tehran.</p>
<p>So this dispute is far from ended and there is a lot of tension brewing under the surface. Saudi Arabia, for its part, sees Iran as an “<a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bup/gd/2016/00000006/00000004/art00013;jsessionid=9ruht0p5u9dqp.x-ic-live-02">existential threat</a>” and is unlikely to take no change as a negative answer.</p>
<p>Others believe that for Bin Salman, temporarily easing the tension with Qatar is “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/dbc2e3f9-80f8-447f-9bc1-00188e696dc4">low-hanging fruit</a>” – something achieved with relative ease ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th US president. Biden is known for his critical attitude towards Riyadh’s approach to human rights.</p>
<p>There is no sign that Qatar is also heeding the other demands, including <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-qatar-turkey-military-idUSKCN0XP2IT">closing Turkey’s military base</a> outside Doha. Turkey is popular among Qataris. You’ll see cars with number plate stickers featuring the Turkish flag – or even with the image of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.</p>
<p>With so few issues apparently actually resolved, it’s little wonder that it took just days for new signs of tension to reappear after the agreement. The UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said following the GCC summit that Doha still has questions to answer, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ea1e7058-960d-416c-93dc-f4f8c7945c12">including</a>: “How is Qatar going to deal vis-à-vis interfering in our affairs through support of political Islam? Is Turkey’s presence in the Gulf going to be permanent?”</p>
<p>These are the same questions asked of Qatar long before the four countries issued their ultimatum in 2017. It’s tension that is likely to outlive the warmth engendered by those televised hugs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153553/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mustafa Menshawy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Underlying issues which led to the three-year dispute have not been resolved.Mustafa Menshawy, Postdoctoral Researcher in Middle East Politics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1425552020-07-14T03:15:58Z2020-07-14T03:15:58ZMalaysia’s media crackdowns are being driven by an insecure government highly sensitive to criticism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347228/original/file-20200714-50-1ysthe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AHMAD YUSNI/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/10/police-interrogate-five-australian-al-jazeera-journalists-accused-of-sedition-in-malaysia">police interrogations</a> of six Al Jazeera journalists in Malaysia – five of whom are Australian – was not about shaping international reportage or a diplomatic rift. </p>
<p>Rather, it was part of a troubling pattern of crackdowns on the media and freedom of speech in the country, driven by the domestic concerns of an insecure government highly sensitive to criticism.</p>
<p>While the previous government led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was by no means consistent or perfect, Malaysia was <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/478815">hailed</a> just last year as an example of a country improving on press freedom. </p>
<p>This started to change in March, however, as Muhyiddin Yassin’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-01/malaysia-new-prime-minister-muhyiddin-yassin-sworn-in/12015020">new government came to power</a>. Tolerance for criticism and dissent has since been in short supply.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zyl_xsdpteI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Al Jazeera’s documentary on the plight of migrant workers during COVID-19.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pattern of repression</h2>
<p>The Al Jazeera journalists have been accused of sedition and defamation over a documentary about the government’s treatment of migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/al-jazeera-journalists-questioned-malaysia-documentary-200710023027535.html">Malaysian officials and national television claim</a> the documentary was inaccurate, misleading and unfair.</p>
<p>But these journalists are hardly the only ones to be targeted by the new government. </p>
<p>Steven Gan, chief editor of the trusted online news portal <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/">Malaysiakini</a>, is facing contempt of court charges and could be sent to jail over reader comments briefly published on the news site that were apparently critical of the judiciary. Gan’s lawyer warned the case could have a “<a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/malaysiakini-contempt-of-court-comments-editor-steven-gan-12927334">chilling effect</a>”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347230/original/file-20200714-58-1h7rdgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347230/original/file-20200714-58-1h7rdgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347230/original/file-20200714-58-1h7rdgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347230/original/file-20200714-58-1h7rdgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347230/original/file-20200714-58-1h7rdgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347230/original/file-20200714-58-1h7rdgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347230/original/file-20200714-58-1h7rdgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Steven Gan arriving in court this week.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AHMAD YUSNI/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>South China Morning Post journalist <a href="https://www.therakyatpost.com/2020/06/16/malaysian-journalist-under-police-investigation-added-to-intl-info-hero-list/">Tashny Sukamaran</a> has been investigated for reporting on <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3082529/coronavirus-hundreds-arrested-malaysia-cracks-down-migrants">police raids</a> of migrant workers and refugees. </p>
<p>Another journalist, Boo Su-Lyn, <a href="https://twitter.com/boosulyn/status/1276349376483344384?lang=en">is being investigated</a> for publishing the findings of an <a href="https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/06/26/cops-to-question-health-news-portal-editor-over-reports-about-fatal-2016-jb/1879069">inquiry</a> into a fire at a hospital in 2016 that left six dead.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1281490345742577665"}"></div></p>
<p>A book featuring articles by political analysts and journalists <a href="https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/07/01/home-ministry-bans-book-with-insulting-cover-of-modified-malaysian-coat-of/1880644">has been banned</a> over the artwork on the cover that allegedly <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-bans-book-that-allegedly-insulted-national-coat-of-arms">insulted the national coat of arms</a>. Sukamaran and journalists from Malaysiakini have been <a href="https://twitter.com/tashny/status/1278908522755837957?s=20">questioned by police about their involvement</a>.</p>
<p>Opposition politicians have also been <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysias-police-chief-defends-questioning-of-two-opposition-mps-over-critical-comments">questioned</a> by police for tweets and comments they made in the media prior to the new government taking power.</p>
<p>Whistle-blowers are included in this, too. For example, the government this week <a href="https://www.hmetro.com.my/utama/2020/07/598950/permit-kerja-rayhan-kabir-sudah-dibatalkan">cancelled</a> the work permit of the migrant worker who was featured in the Al Jazeera documentary.</p>
<h2>Why the recent crackdown?</h2>
<p>Malaysia’s current coalition government – <a href="https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/05/17/bn-bersatu-pas-and-three-others-agree-to-form-perikatan-nasional/1867019">Perikatan Nasional</a> – was controversially formed earlier this year. The alliance came to power via backdoor politicking and support from the Malaysian king as Mahathir’s <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/mahathirs-choice/">dysfunctional coalition imploded</a>. </p>
<p>The new government coalition includes the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00358533.2018.1545944">party voted out of power</a> in 2018 following a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-najib-razaks-corruption-trial-means-for-malaysia-and-the-region-114828">massive corruption scandal</a>. This was the first time Malaysia had changed government in its 60-year history. </p>
<p>With UMNO now back in government, it is perhaps no surprise there are again more crackdowns on the media, as their previous rule saw <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00472336.2013.765138">regular attacks on journalists, activists and opposition figures</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/malaysia-takes-a-turn-to-the-right-and-many-of-its-people-are-worried-132865">Malaysia takes a turn to the right, and many of its people are worried</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Malaysia has also become known for its “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305118821801">cybertroopers</a>” - social media commentators similar to “trolls” – who drive heated nationalistic and race-related agendas, and target government critics. </p>
<p>After the Al Jazeera documentary, these cyber-troopers provided fervent support for the government’s actions, arguing it had every right to round up migrants and evict them if it sees fit. Al Jazeera <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/al-jazeera-rejects-malaysian-officials-claims-documentary-200709163244473.html">said</a> its journalists were also targeted by cyber-troopers, saying they</p>
<blockquote>
<p>faced abuse online, including death threats and disclosure of their personal details over social media. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Shaky government looking to firm up support</h2>
<p>There’s another reason for the return of media crackdowns and online-driven activity beyond just the government’s desire to control the media. </p>
<p>It is also tactical as it allows government ministers to respond with firm statements asking security forces to intervene – enabling them to look strong, coherent and nationalistic.</p>
<p>Muhyiddin’s coalition is on shaky ground. It holds a slim majority in parliament and internal party factions have come to dominate political debate, with “<a href="https://www.malaymail.com/news/what-you-think/2020/06/14/addressing-the-new-normal-of-party-hopping-in-malaysia-fakhrurrazi-rashid/1875335">party-hopping</a>” becoming increasingly common. Malaysiakini even has a <a href="https://newslab.malaysiakini.com/battle-for-putrajaya/en">rolling news page</a> regularly updated to track politicians’ changing alliances. </p>
<p>Malaysia’s parliament also finally resumed this week after a long and unstable hiatus, and was described as a “<a href="https://twitter.com/Ambiga_S/status/1282662468330782726?s=20">circus</a>”. Politicians shouted over one another, with some trading <a href="https://twitter.com/KasthuriPatto/status/1282593576270979074?s=20">racist and sexist remarks</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1282593576270979074"}"></div></p>
<p>The house speaker, who was part of Mahathir’s administration, was also
<a href="https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/07/14/change-of-guard-in-the-house">controversially replaced</a>. There has been consistent <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/5c3bd717-c147-4b39-b2df-46a246f53f57">talk of snap polls</a>. </p>
<p>In this environment, politicians who don’t respond forcefully enough in the “culture wars” over documentaries and controversial artwork on book covers, or conform with the online mob on immigration, risk looking weak. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-blaming-others-dominates-indonesian-and-malaysian-twitterspheres-during-covid-19-pandemic-136193">How blaming others dominates Indonesian and Malaysian twitterspheres during COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A ‘new normal’ settling in</h2>
<p>A snap election won’t necessarily help Muyhiddin strengthen his position, as parties within the coalition can become rivals during a campaign for certain seats. </p>
<p>But no matter who rules Malaysia in the coming months, the result will likely be a government that is fragile, insecure and worried about its legitimacy. For Malaysians, this is their “new normal”. </p>
<p>The risk for journalists in this “new normal” is further repression and harassment of independent media. As we have seen elsewhere in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/world/asia/philippines-congress-media-duterte-abs-cbn.html">Southeast Asia</a>, as well as in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-bernard-collaerys-case-is-one-of-the-gravest-threats-to-freedom-of-expression-122463">Australia</a>, the state seems increasingly willing to use legal and regulatory pressure to make sure journalists and whistle-blowers are afraid to speak up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142555/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Tapsell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After Muhyiddin Yassin’s new government came to power in March, tolerance for criticism and dissent has been in short supply.Ross Tapsell, Senior Lecturer in the School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific., Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1413262020-06-25T08:03:48Z2020-06-25T08:03:48ZVoice of America struggle for independence highlights issue of state role in government-backed media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343689/original/file-20200624-132965-nu4vy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C14%2C1908%2C1051&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Michael Pack at his confirmation hearing in Washington, September 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">VOA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/voice-america-will-sound-like-trump/613321/">Journalists</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/bzelizer/status/1273454503317114881">scholars</a>, <a href="https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-alarmed-abrupt-dismissals-us-news-agency-heads-trump-appointed-ceo">media freedom organisations</a> and even senior <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/18/trump-global-media-chief-faces-gop-backlash-over-f/">Republicans</a> have been alarmed by the appointment of Donald Trump’s nominee, Michael Pack, as chief executive of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees state-funded international media. </p>
<p>Pack has been described as an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jun/06/michael-pack-steve-bannon-ally-broadcasting-board-of-governors">ally of Steve Bannon</a>, the chief executive of the far-right media outlet, Breitbart News. Within two weeks of his formal appointment on June 4, Pack had “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/17/media/us-agency-for-global-media-michael-pack/index.html">purged</a>” the heads of four state-funded news organisations, Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Open Technology Fund. He is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/24/882654831/citing-a-breached-firewall-media-leaders-sue-u-s-official-over-firings?">now being sued</a> by former members of these organisations’ advisory boards, who claim that this mass sacking breaks federal guarantees about their journalistic independence.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/politics/voice-of-american-resignations.html">The director and deputy director of Voice of America (VoA) resigned</a> on June 2 two days before Pack took up his post. The radio network – which is the largest and best-known international news organisation funded by the US – also has a <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/15/2020-12696/firewall-and-highest-standards-of-professional-journalism">statutory</a> “firewall” designed to protect its editorial independence. Yet VoA is also obliged to carry “editorials” which present the views of the US government – editorials which <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/2020/06/24/usagm-ceo-michael-pack-moves-to-restore-voa-editorials-to-former-prominence/">Pack has ruled</a> must now be positioned much more prominently. </p>
<p>Journalists at VoA are <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/15/media/voice-of-america-top-officials-resign/index.html">reported</a> to be seriously concerned that Pack intends to “interfere with VoA’s independent newsroom and turn it into a pro-Trump messaging machine”. These fears are likely to be exacerbated by recent <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/14/u-s-repeals-propaganda-ban-spreads-government-made-news-to-americans/">legislative changes</a> allowing VoA to broadcast domestically, which was previously forbidden under “anti-propaganda” laws passed during the cold war.</p>
<p>But perhaps the most obvious cause of concern is VoA’s increasingly fraught relationship with the White House. Earlier this year, Trump’s criticisms of VoA escalated, when he alleged that its journalists were spreading “Chinese propaganda” about <a href="https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/2020/04/10/831988148/white-house-attacks-voice-of-america-over-china-coronavirus-coverage">coronavirus</a>. Then, just before Pack’s appointment, VoA journalists used a Freedom of Information request to discover that that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had emailed staff telling them to <a href="https://www.voanews.com/press-freedom/cdc-media-guidance-blacklists-voa-interview-requests">ignore media requests from VoA journalists</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">VoA is the largest US international broadcaster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Van Scyoc via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, how will VoA journalists respond to Pack’s new appointment? <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/2020/06/18/ceo-message-to-staff/">In an introductory email</a> to the staff of state-funded media organisations, Pack stressed his commitment to honouring VoA’s charter and the independence of its “heroic” staff around the world. The White House then issued a <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/2020/06/18/usagm-ceo-implements-critical-changes-on-day-one-to-fulfill-legislative-mandate/">press release</a> claiming that Pack’s reassuring message was met with an “overwhelmingly positive response” from journalists and grantees “who personally reached out and candidly congratulated him.” </p>
<p>One is even <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/2020/06/18/usagm-ceo-implements-critical-changes-on-day-one-to-fulfill-legislative-mandate/">cited as having said</a>: “I am sure that with your arrival, we will be able to rejuvenate our agency, to get rid of any bias and partisanship, and will be able to adequately transmit America’s image and ideas to the outer world.”</p>
<h2>Muddled mission</h2>
<p>Our recently published research shows that Pack’s appointment is unlikely to be viewed enthusiastically by many VoA journalists. Over the past five years, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1940161220922832">we have studied</a> the relationships between journalists at various state-supported news outlets and the countries that fund them. The VoA journalists we spoke to said they had been seriously worried for a long time about Pack’s nomination, and their organisation’s relationship to the Trump administration. </p>
<p>Their concern was initially prompted by Trump’s notoriously poor relationship with the media, when combined with other legislative changes (passed late in the Obama administration), which removed the regulatory power of the bipartisan <a href="https://bbgwatch.com/bbgwatch/obama-signs-off-on-reducing-status-of-broadcasting-board-of-governors/">Broadcasting Board of Governors</a>. As one put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We all saw what happened during the [election] campaign and the various different attacks on the media that the president, as a candidate, was waging.</p>
<p>There was a concern amongst journalists … that [without the BBG firewall] there would be some sort of real focus on how VoA can reach audiences around the world, and a look at, perhaps, how the White House can take advantage of that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, VoA journalists also thought that the radio network was vulnerable to political interference because of specific tensions within <a href="https://www.voanews.com/archive/voa-charter-0">VoA’s Charter</a>. This obliges the network’s journalists to offer “accurate, objective, and comprehensive” news while “present[ing] the policies of the United States clearly and effectively.” </p>
<p>The charter states that VoA output should include “responsible discussions and opinion” on these policies, rather than simply representing the views of a “single segment of American society.” But this inevitably means that, as one editor put it, journalists report on international news “through the prism of United States’ government policy”. </p>
<p>The “red line” for VoA’s news journalists seemed to be their ability to make editorial decisions without explicit interference from the US government. Indeed, some told us that they had already decided to resign if the administration tried to use Pack’s appointment to curb their editorial independence. However, VoA journalists are not alone in experiencing serious ethical quandaries about their relationship to their funding state.</p>
<h2>Heavy hand of government</h2>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1940161220922832">Our research</a> shows that a series of events between 2015-2018 have made it increasingly difficult for journalists at other state-funded international media to avoid confronting their role in diplomatic struggles for influence. </p>
<p>The most obvious example of this is international media funded by China, the premier of which takes an increasingly <a href="https://america.cgtn.com/2018/03/21/china-to-merge-state-media-broadcasting-giants">centralised and controlling approach to state-funded journalism</a>. Journalists working for China Global Television Network (CGTN), who had previously been allowed far more editorial discretion than their colleagues at other China-supported outlets, were deeply distressed by growing censorship, and other kinds of managerial intervention. This threatened their sense of themselves as “journalists”, with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1940161220922832">one even saying</a> that they worried that the network was being pushed “towards the point of propaganda.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Advertising banner for China Global Television Network at Heathrow Airport Terminal Five.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Harper via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By contrast, we found no evidence that the UK government interfered in editorial matters. But its explicit framing of generous funding for the BBC World Service in terms of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-security-strategy-and-strategic-defence-and-security-review-2015">British security interests</a> seriously troubled some journalists, especially those working in sensitive areas, such as former British colonies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">BBC World Service headquarters on Portland Place in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Willy Barton via Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Although the Qatari government does not appear to have restructured or reframed its relationship to Al Jazeera English, its journalists became acutely aware of their involvement in international struggles during the Gulf diplomatic crisis, when Qatar’s neighbours and their allies demanded that Qatar <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/arab-states-issue-list-demands-qatar-crisis-170623022133024.html">close the network down</a>.</p>
<p>Journalists working for all of these state-funded news organisations have struggled to reconcile their understandings of their diplomatic role with their ideals of journalistic independence. Yet no matter how fraught relations with their funding governments became – and how compromised journalists sometimes felt – it was very unusual for them to resign or come together to resist state pressure en masse. </p>
<p>Indeed, we found that active resistance only happened when journalists feared that they would lose all credibility in the eyes of journalists outside of their news organisation, thus seriously damaging their own career prospects. So, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/877762070/top-executives-at-voa-resign-as-trump-ally-prepares-to-take-over">the decision of the two most senior executives at VoA to resign,</a> just before Pack’s appointment, should not be underestimated.</p>
<p>Instead of resisting government pressure, we found that journalists tended to use what we call “legitimising narratives” to reassure themselves and others that their work was still worthwhile. First, they compared themselves favourably with a shared “other” – Russia Today – arguing that they did not disseminate “state propaganda” like RT, because they told the truth. At other times, they would talk about the resources and access that their state funding gave them to do morally important, but time-consuming and expensive forms of investigative reporting — money that is increasingly vanishing at commercial news outlets.</p>
<p>Finally, the journalists would talk about the concept of “soft power” – and the fact that the government funded their news outlet to make them “look good” abroad. This soft power could only work, the journalists reasoned, if their news outlet was perceived as reporting in an independent and credible manner. So, they said they felt reasonably confident that the state was unlikely to erode their freedom further in the future. The latest events at VoA suggest that this confidence may have been misplaced.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Wright receives funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Scott receives funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mel Bunce receives funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>New research shows that journalists tend to only resist government interference when they fear it will seriously damage their career prospects’.Kate Wright, Academic Lead of Media and Communications Research Cluster, The University of EdinburghMartin Scott, Senior Lecturer in Media and International Development, University of East AngliaMel Bunce, Reader in Journalism, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1142802019-03-29T01:05:16Z2019-03-29T01:05:16ZOne Nation, guns and the Queensland question: what does it all mean for the 2019 federal election?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266301/original/file-20190328-139371-1uycvcc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pauline Hanson claims the Al Jazeera undercover "sting", which has grabbed international headlines, was a media "stitch-up".</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Peled</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of all the controversies to conceivably bring Pauline Hanson undone, private discussions about gun law amendments wasn’t an obvious candidate.</p>
<p>Yet her <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-28/pauline-hanson-appears-to-question-port-arthur-massacre/10947112">recorded comments</a> about the 1996 Port Arthur massacre and subsequent gun law reforms are potentially destructive for her One Nation party. Only potentially, though; Hanson’s supporters have long shown a propensity to forgive or shrug off her party’s outlandish or shocking assertions.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-scott-morrison-struggles-to-straddle-the-south-north-divide-114461">Grattan on Friday: Scott Morrison struggles to straddle the south-north divide</a>
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<p>Already, Hanson and party colleagues have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/28/pauline-hanson-says-one-nation-victim-of-political-attack-by-al-jazeera-and-abc">shifted blame</a> for the Al Jazeera “sting” to a media “stitch-up” and, <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/pauline-hanson-responds-to-controversy-over-al-jazeera-documentary/news-story/238caad1f0ad1b911bb7c2cb8175ca94">they claimed</a>, foreign political interference by an “Islamist media organisation”. </p>
<p>Presumably some Hanson adherents will find that plausible – the party has made anti-Muslim rhetoric part of its <a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/politics/one-nation/pauline-hanson-clashes-with-david-koch-over-anti-muslim-rhetoric-ng-b881138713z">regular platform</a>. Other One Nation supporters might now question the principles the party claims to <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/one-nations-staggering-hypocrisy-exposed-by-al-jazeera-documentary/news-story/2c7d089df6300b409f684fbeeb161d16">stand for</a>.</p>
<h2>Why guns policy?</h2>
<p>Why would One Nation seemingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-james-ashby-rocks-a-few-boats-including-his-own-114324">risk</a> whatever political capital it possesses by flirting with changes to gun controls and seeking assistance (if not funding) from gun lobby groups?</p>
<p>The party’s nativist policy positions on refugees, immigration and foreign investment are well known and readily detailed on its website. Until now, gun law amendment has sat well behind these. One Nation’s <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/policies/responsible-firearms-ownership-and-use/">listed policies</a> on firearms regulations include increasing penalties for gun-related crime and “streamlining” weapon licensing requirements. Not exactly controversial stuff.</p>
<p>But it is important to remember that the party first emerged in the wake of the Port Arthur shootings and rural resistance to the Howard government’s gun ownership reforms. Hanson and her candidates campaigned in the party’s early years on relaxing John Howard’s <a href="https://archive.homeaffairs.gov.au/crime/Documents/2017-national-firearms-agreement.pdf">laws</a>. They also <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/pauline-hansons-one-nation-a-triggerhappy-party/news-story/bc99749f392fa2134dd70ae8c2022b1f">benefited politically</a> from a mainly regional backlash against these – and against Howard’s National Party partners.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-fraser-anning-was-elected-to-the-senate-and-what-the-major-parties-can-do-to-keep-extremists-out-114011">How Fraser Anning was elected to the Senate – and what the major parties can do to keep extremists out</a>
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<p>Recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/07/australian-gun-lobby-donations-rightwing-minor-parties-weaken-reforms-control">highlighted connections</a> between Australian gun lobby groups and minor parties, including One Nation and Katter’s Australian Party, bring the backdrop to this policy agenda into sharper relief.</p>
<p>One Nation’s original and more recent platform caters to disaffected, largely non-metropolitan constituents who feel the party’s anti-immigration, anti-foreign business and anti-government intervention policies “<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/2120200/firebrand-australian-senator-hanson-takes-far-right-campaign">speak for them</a>”.</p>
<p>In its recent incarnation, One Nation has tried – and found ready accomplices in sections of the media – to “<a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/politics/peter-costello-says-one-nation-has-now-mainstreamed-itself-ng-0c211ed4f0f1f0ef25d87487c339b92c">mainstream</a>” its appeal and some of its positions. It’s been observed that the party’s Senate members have <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pauline-hansons-one-nation-emerges-as-governments-most-reliable-senate-voting-partner-20170304-guqo6i.html">regularly</a> supported the Coalition government’s legislative agenda during this term, on matters ranging from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/restoring-the-construction-watchdog-abcc-experts-respond-69643">reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC)</a> to reduced welfare spending.</p>
<p>The party’s suite of <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/policies/">published policies</a> covers matters of concern to many Australians, such as power prices, transport infrastructure, water supply and jobs creation.</p>
<p>In this respect, it was perhaps not so surprising that Liberal MPs should describe the party as “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/one-nation-more-economically-responsible-than-labor-steve-ciobo-20170213-guc3rz.html">more responsible</a>” than its earlier manifestation. Even former prime minister Tony Abbott, Hanson’s one-time political nemesis, endorsed One Nation owing to its “constructive” relationship <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/27/tony-abbott-says-politicians-better-second-time-around-at-pauline-hanson-book-launch">with the government</a> in parliament.</p>
<p>But this normalisation fails to mask the party’s extreme stances or inconsistent policy positions – even between <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/one-nation-policies-the-definitive-guide-to-the-views-of-pauline-hanson-and-her-senators-20161017-gs3z1s.html">its own members</a>. One Nation adheres to curious policies decrying United Nations <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/policies/united-nations-and-trade-agreements/">infringement</a> on our sovereignty, as well as questionable claims about <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/policies/climate-change/">evidence-based</a> climate policy.</p>
<p>Then there is the attention-seeking behaviour: Hanson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2017/aug/17/george-brandis-attacks-pauline-hansons-appalling-burqa-stunt-video">wearing a burqa</a> in the Senate chamber; or Queensland Senate candidate Steve Dickson suggesting the Safe Schools program involved teachers instructing students in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-11/annastacia-palaszczuk-rubbishes-one-nations-safe-schools-claim/9141520">masturbation techniques</a>; or New South Wales upper house candidate Mark Latham proposing Indigenous welfare recipients undergo <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/everybody-hates-a-welfare-rorter-latham-spruiks-dna-testing-plan-for-aboriginal-people-20190311-p513au.html">DNA testing</a>. Stunts like these place One Nation firmly on the political fringe – though not without fellow dwellers. Notoriously, Coalition senators scrambled to backtrack on supporting Hanson’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-16/morrison-regrets-senators-backing-anti-white-racism-support/10381038">Senate motion</a> decreeing that “it’s OK to be white”. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266463/original/file-20190328-139356-178qo5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266463/original/file-20190328-139356-178qo5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266463/original/file-20190328-139356-178qo5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266463/original/file-20190328-139356-178qo5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266463/original/file-20190328-139356-178qo5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266463/original/file-20190328-139356-178qo5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266463/original/file-20190328-139356-178qo5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Stunts such as Pauline Hanson wearing a burqa in the Senate place One Nation on the political fringe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mick Tsikas</span></span>
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<p>This latest party engagement in seeking out overseas gun lobby assistance highlights another inconsistency, given Hanson’s vote in the Senate supporting new restrictions on <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-26/pauline-hanson-one-nation-slammed-gun-laws-and-foreign-donations/10939140">foreign donations</a>.</p>
<h2>The Queensland question</h2>
<p>Considering this, why do One Nation’s policies seemingly still appeal to significant numbers of voters, particularly in Queensland? Traces of an entrenched conservative <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-john-harms-queensland-what-it-understand-place-you-must-first-understand-bundaberg-be">political culture</a> thumbing its nose at “the establishment” partly explain the party’s appeal in Queensland (and perhaps some of Peter Dutton’s ill-judged, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/nov/22/peter-duttons-lebanese-muslim-remarks-attacked-as-race-baiting">racially charged comments</a> as immigration minister).</p>
<p>It’s a culture underpinned by a history of less diverse migrant influence than other parts of the country and arguably a more wary, paternalistic past regarding Indigenous and minority communities.</p>
<p>Another reason is the accentuated city-country divide in Australia’s most decentralised mainland state. Here, some agrarian-themed party policies – such as for <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/one-nation-promises-gigantic-water-infrastructure-plans/">dam building</a> or <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/policies/vegetation-management/">vegetation management</a> – directly pander to regional voters. As a minor party not in government, though, One Nation has limited opportunity to carry these through, beyond aiming to wield balance-of-power <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/one-nation-staffer-filmed-seeking-millions-from-nra-in-bid-to-soften-gun-laws">influence</a> in the Senate.</p>
<p>More telling is One Nation’s claimed inheritance of an old National Party constituency. It is one that feels “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/27/looking-back-and-angry-what-drives-pauline-hansons-voters">left behind</a>” – a sentiment the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party successfully tapped into in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coalition-wins-a-third-term-in-nsw-with-few-seats-changing-hands-113035">NSW election</a>. </p>
<p>As in the past, the Nationals will seek to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/barnaby-joyce-says-nationals-must-shift-to-the-right-to-counter-shooters-threat-20190325-p517go.html">differentiate themselves</a> from their Coalition partners and marginalise One Nation and other far-right parties ahead of the 2019 federal election.</p>
<p>But that’s no easy feat in Queensland. Since the Liberal and National parties merged in the state to form the LNP in 2008, there has been no distinct outward National Party. Some rural and regional voters in Queensland have felt unrepresented to a certain extent, and their grievances have placed many in a resurgent <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-29/meet-pauline-hansons-queensland-supporters/8220198">One Nation camp</a>.</p>
<p>The party’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-19/meet-voters-shunned-major-parties-in-favour-of-pauline-hanson/7762820">identification</a> with aggrieved outer-urban and regional conservative interests keeps its voters’ preferences an issue. Again, this is especially so in Queensland, where several LNP MPs hold seats in such areas on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/08/lnp-believes-queensland-marginal-seats-back-in-play-under-morrison">tight margins</a>.</p>
<p>But following this week’s revelations, and particularly in the wake of the Christchurch shootings, the preference issue will <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/20/morrison-on-the-spot-as-hanson-claims-mps-reject-one-nation-preference-snub">bedevil the Coalition</a> in this state and elsewhere. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guns-politics-and-policy-what-can-we-learn-from-al-jazeeras-undercover-nra-sting-114291">Guns, politics and policy: what can we learn from Al Jazeera's undercover NRA sting?</a>
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<p>The prime minister’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-28/one-nation-will-be-preferenced-lower-than-labor-pm-announces/10947720">latest announcement</a> directing the Liberal Party’s state branches to preference Labor ahead of One Nation sends a needed message, but not unequivocally. It apparently leaves Liberals free to place One Nation ahead of the Greens or others, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-fraser-anning-was-elected-to-the-senate-and-what-the-major-parties-can-do-to-keep-extremists-out-114011">is ambiguous</a> on how this will apply to all LNP MPs in Queensland, or possibly influence Nationals MPs elsewhere.</p>
<p>But the clamouring of Queensland’s Nationals-aligned MPs for new coal-fired <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/11/liberals-attack-queensland-nationals-push-for-coal-fired-power-stations">power stations</a> – mirroring One Nation <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/policies/affordable-energy-and-cost-of-living/">policy</a> – indicates their likely preference leanings in favour of the minor party (and presumably leaves the Greens <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/03/19/greens-worse-than-pauline-hanson/">last of all</a>).</p>
<p>The recorded actions and comments of Hanson and her party colleagues could bring a political reckoning for One Nation at the coming federal election. Voters will soon judge if the party warrants their electoral support and decide if this new controversy is a bridge too far.</p>
<p>For its part, the Coalition is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/28/scott-morrison-sat-on-the-fence-with-the-one-nation-scandal-finally-he-has-acted">treading a line</a> between getting its hands burned over preference “deals”, as happened at Western Australia’s <a href="https://thewest.com.au/politics/federal-politics/colin-barnett-warns-against-liberal-preference-deal-with-hanson-ng-b881140566z">last election</a>, or doing as John Howard (ultimately) did and <a href="https://medium.com/the-machinery-of-government/donning-the-mantle-of-john-howard-4583e0a4611">jettisoning</a> One Nation preferences altogether.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Chris Salisbury is affiliated with Queensland's TJ Ryan Foundation.</span></em></p>One Nation, particularly in Queensland, has attracted voters who feel “left out” of mainstream politics. But the Coalition’s intermittent courting of the party may end with this week’s revelations.Chris Salisbury, Research Associate, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1142912019-03-27T03:28:22Z2019-03-27T03:28:22ZGuns, politics and policy: what can we learn from Al Jazeera’s undercover NRA sting?<p>Al Jazeera’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/sell-massacre-nra-playbook-revealed-190325111828105.html">undercover investigation</a> into the US National Rifle Association (NRA) has gained international headlines, partly because of One Nation political wannabes <a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-james-ashby-rocks-a-few-boats-including-his-own-114324">drunkenly bragging</a> about how important they could be if only they had the money. </p>
<p>None of this should come as a surprise. You would have to be living under a rock to not know that the NRA has money, lobbies with it, and uses a standard set of PR tactics. Likewise, nobody has ever accused One Nation of being sophisticated or lacking grandiose delusions. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-james-ashby-rocks-a-few-boats-including-his-own-114324">View from The Hill: James Ashby rocks a few boats, including his own</a>
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<p>However, in a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-27/australian-gun-lobby-as-well-organised-as-nra-report-finds/10940384">carefully timed release to the ABC</a>, a report commissioned by Gun Control Australia and Getup! claims gun control in Australia is being eroded because of the gun lobby. </p>
<p>In reality, <a href="https://archive.homeaffairs.gov.au/crime/Documents/2017-national-firearms-agreement.pdf">Australia’s gun laws</a> remain virtually the same as when each state and territory introduced them more than 20 years ago. The last major change was in 2017, when all jurisdictions agreed to ban lever-action shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than five rounds of ammunition. Hardly “watering down”.</p>
<h2>What is really going on?</h2>
<p>Simple: when all we hear is guns, guns, guns, it means an election is on the horizon. It is not about guns, but politics.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, regular as clockwork, we have seen both major parties wheel out <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/18/john-howard-says-gun-control-at-risk-over-nsw-labor-deal-with-shooters-party">campaigns</a> around <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/25/bill-shorten-asks-turnbull-to-intervene-and-prevent-changes-to-tasmanian-gun-laws">gun laws</a>, <a href="https://mehreen-faruqi.greensmps.org.au/articles/corrupting-influence-gun-lobby-out-water-down-gun-control-laws">aided and abetted</a> by the Greens. This occurred most recently in New South Wales, with the Liberal-Nationals running <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/john-howard-warns-nsw-shooters-election-deal-could-erode-gun-laws">attack ads</a> against the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party. </p>
<p>The campaigns involve one or more of: releasing data obtained under Freedom of Information about <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-09/gun-ownership-in-nsw-growing-fast/10886380">how many guns are legally owned</a>; claiming gun laws are being (or have been, or will be) dangerously watered down if an opposing major party or rising minor party gains power; and making scary statements about a <a href="https://mehreen-faruqi.greensmps.org.au/articles/corrupting-influence-gun-lobby-out-water-down-gun-control-laws">well-funded gun lobby</a> (which is somehow all-powerful despite having changed little in over two decades). </p>
<p>The goal is to create fear, in the expectation this will translate to voting patterns. Politicians also like to have an “enemy” to rally against, to display their own virtues. At times, <a href="https://www.theland.com.au/story/4991175/shooters-concede-in-murray-by-election/">this tactic has worked</a>. It is a fair bet that politicians’ reactions to One Nation’s buffoonery reflect the hope that it will work again. </p>
<p>Based on past voting patterns, it is likely both major parties anticipate One Nation robbing them of votes in the upcoming federal election and are looking for ways to blunt that. The <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/one-nation-nra-gun-scandal-election-preference-deals/16a35ede-75eb-41ac-9de2-c18e2f231d1b">mudslinging over preferences</a> makes this clear.</p>
<p>If the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/nsw-coalition-scrapes-back-in-as-minor-parties-surge-but-delivering-on-promises-will-not-be-easy-113485">New South Wales state election</a> is anything to go by, though, voters seem to be ignoring gun campaigns and making their own decisions based on <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-23/nsw-election-voting-closes-after-polls-suggest-tight-race/10911728">much bigger issues</a>. </p>
<p>However, there <em>is</em> a genuine danger arising from the Al Jazeera report. Unfortunately, we can now expect that anybody who suggests that effective firearm policy takes time and careful thought – and that it might not be as simple as it looks – will be denounced as an NRA shill. This is a silencing tactic that does absolutely nothing to improve the impoverished and tribalised nature of public debate in this country.</p>
<p>As New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently observed, firearm policy and legislation is a complex area. In addition to the technical aspects, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299380904_A_systematic_review_of_quantitative_evidence_about_the_impacts_of_Australian_legislative_reform_on_firearm_homicide">evidence</a> about <a href="https://academic.oup.com/epirev/article/38/1/140/2754868">what does</a> and does not work to reduce gun violence is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12103-011-9147-x">nowhere near as clear-cut</a> as it is sometimes made out to be. Well-intentioned measures can have <a href="https://www.acic.gov.au/about-crime/crime-types/illicit-firearms">unintended consequences</a>, which we should learn from and attempt to avoid.</p>
<p>It is not far-right madness to say that if a policy gains appeal primarily because of the emotions surrounding it, rather than on its merits, then it might not be an effective policy. It is not dangerous extremism to suggest that sound legislation comes from careful reflection and robust debate. It is not irrational to raise concerns about the negative outcomes that can arise when reacting is turned into a virtue and thinking into a vice. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/did-al-jazeeras-undercover-investigation-into-one-nation-overstep-the-mark-114288">Did Al Jazeera's undercover investigation into One Nation overstep the mark?</a>
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<p>In fact, a rational and careful approach, based on rigorous evaluation and calm, measured discussion, is the very foundation of evidence-based policy – a <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/102083-whatever-happened-to-evidence-based-policymaking/">much-touted model</a> of <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/85836/cs20090204.pdf">how to approach decision-making</a>. </p>
<p>Political failure to adopt evidence-based policy – despite politicians paying it lip service – is the subject of much scholarly teeth-gnashing, and for good reason. Some of the most ill-fated, costly and objectionable policies we have seen in Australia in recent years – in areas including immigration, Indigenous affairs, and youth violence, to give just three examples – have come as a result of ignoring evidence-based policy. We are quick to call these out, and rightly so. Why behave differently about guns? </p>
<p>If we are serious about wanting thoughtful and well-considered decisions, we cannot pick and choose the issues to which we apply reflection and analysis. And if we do want to pick and choose, then we cannot complain when politicians do the same with the issues we really want them to do better on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114291/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Samara McPhedran does not does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that might benefit from this article. She has received funding from various Australian and international government grant programs, including the Australian Research Council and Criminology Research Council, for a number of projects relating to homicide and suicide. She has been appointed to a number of advisory panels and committees, most recently as a member of the Queensland Ministerial Advisory Panel on Firearms, and as a previous member of the Commonwealth Firearms Advisory Council. She does not receive any financial remuneration or other reward for these activities. She has held past memberships with/volunteered for a range of not-for-profit firearm-related organisations, and women's advocacy groups, including a previous term as Chair of the International Coalition for Women in Shooting and Hunting (WiSH). She is currently affiliated with the Queensland Homicide Victims’ Support Group, serving on the Board of Directors. This is an unpaid position. She is not, and has never been, a member of any political party. The views expressed are those of the author alone.</span></em></p>Firearms policy is more complex than people often allow, and evidence about what works to reduce gun violence is also not clear-cut.Samara McPhedran, Director, Homicide Research Unit/Deputy Director, Violence Research and Prevention Program, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1142882019-03-26T03:45:57Z2019-03-26T03:45:57ZDid Al Jazeera’s undercover investigation into One Nation overstep the mark?<p>The sheer audacity of Al Jazeera’s three-year ruse is astounding. </p>
<p>The news company’s investigation unit has carried out a sting that has captured both the National Rifle Association of the United States and Australia’s One Nation Party in all sorts of compromising positions. </p>
<p>The series, “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/sell-massacre-nra-playbook-revealed-190325111828105.html">How to sell a massacre</a>”, has exposed the NRA’s manipulative media practices and revealed One Nation’s desire to cosy up to the US gun lobby to find ways of funding its domestic campaign to overturn our gun laws. </p>
<p>The documentary has exposed the thinking of some of the party’s most senior figures about taking control of the parliament and their obsession with Muslim <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/policies/immigration-and-the-rule-of-law/">immigration</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">How to Sell a Massacre P1 | Al Jazeera Investigations.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Al Jazeera senior producer Peter Charley did this by placing actor-turned journalist Rodger Muller in the field to impersonate the head of a fake pro-gun lobby group called Gun Rights Australia. The pair then pandered to One Nation’s desire for financial support and international endorsement and exploited US gun lobbyists’ fears about Australia’s strict gun laws. </p>
<p>They got away with this for three years, gaining unprecedented access to the halls of the NRA and to the minds of two One Nation officials, Queensland state leader <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/our-team/steve-dickson/">Steve Dickson</a> and the party’s <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/how-james-ashby-became-pauline-hansons-right-hand-man/news-story/f1ca8bf7fba2d663920259dca1caa0e3">controversial</a> chief of staff, James Ashby.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-australias-nra-inspired-gun-lobby-is-trying-to-chip-away-at-gun-control-laws-state-by-state-105667">How Australia's NRA-inspired gun lobby is trying to chip away at gun control laws, state by state</a>
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<h2>A matter of ethics</h2>
<p>There are at least two ethical questions about this documentary. </p>
<p>The first is whether the producers have overstepped the mark by not only reporting what they saw but creating the scenario in which the events occurred.</p>
<p>The second concerns the program’s extensive use of hidden cameras. </p>
<p>On the first matter, the issue is whether the program created the meeting between One Nation and the NRA and therefore acted irresponsibly by entrapping the subjects of the film. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/americas/2019/03/undercover-expose-australia-gun-lobby-190325120818734.html">his account</a> of what happened, Rodger Muller put it this way: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Then Charley asked me to contact Pauline Hanson’s One Nation – a far-right pro-gun Australian political party. Charley wanted me to find out if any connections existed between One Nation and the US gun lobby. And so began another chapter in my life as an avid “gunner”.</p>
<p>When I approached One Nation Chief of Staff James Ashby and mentioned my NRA connections, he told me he wanted to visit the US to meet them. I set up meetings in Washington and soon Ashby and One Nation’s Steve Dickson were on a flight to the US.</p>
<p>I was there, ready to meet them. And our hidden cameras were all primed and ready to go. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This suggests that Muller and Al Jazeera were catalysts and enabled the connection between One Nation and the NRA. But it also demonstrates that there was a desire on the part of One Nation to meet the US gun lobby, and – as later becomes clear - the party was motivated to do so to raise funds and make political connections. </p>
<h2>So is this responsible journalism?</h2>
<p>The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance <a href="https://www.meaa.org/meaa-media/code-of-ethics/">code of ethics</a> – the protocols by which thoughtful journalists operate in Australia – is largely silent on this issue. </p>
<p>It doesn’t say anything explicitly about creating the news by making connections between players to observe what happens next. But it does stress the need to “report and interpret honestly”. </p>
<p>It calls on reporters to use “fair, responsible and honest means to obtain material” and to “respect personal privacy”. But the code also acknowledges journalists both scrutinise and exercise power. The preamble makes the point that journalism animates democracy. </p>
<p>Most importantly, in its guiding cause, the code states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>ethical journalism requires conscientious decision-making in context. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It allows for any of its other clauses to be overridden to achieve “substantial advancement of the public interest”. </p>
<p>So is it wrong to make and enable connections that might not otherwise happen in order to observe the outcomes? Is this fair and honest and responsible? </p>
<p>Like many things, the answer might be dependent on the motivation. From where I stand, it looks like Al Jazeera’s motivation was to get to the heart of something fundamentally important that would otherwise remain opaque. </p>
<h2>Breaches of privacy and deceptive conduct</h2>
<p>And while we’re pondering that one, there’s the perennial ethical question about hidden cameras. </p>
<p>This isn’t your garden variety case of a tabloid TV program exposing a dodgy car salesmen or a real estate scammer. In this film, the use of hidden cameras directly places several parts of the code of ethics against that all important public interest override. </p>
<p>The question is whether the public’s right to know is so important that it justifies the film’s deceptive conduct and breaches of privacy.</p>
<p>For me, the use of hidden cameras can clearly be defended when a publicly funded Australian political party, that knows what it’s doing is dodgy, is making connections to “change Australia” by gaining the balance of power in the parliament and “working hand in glove with the United States”.</p>
<p>It is highly likely the extent of One Nation’s behaviour could only be exposed through this sort of reportage. James Ashby is captured repeatedly reminding others they need to be secretive in their dealings with the NRA.</p>
<p>The public has a clear right to know what One Nation is up to. This is especially the case when part of its mission is to learn new techniques to manipulate the public debate to pursue an agenda of overturning the ban on guns following the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre. </p>
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<h2>The NRA are media experts</h2>
<p>There’s something else about this program that justifies the use of hidden cameras. It exposes the utter cynicism of the media messaging and media training that underpins the NRA like nothing I have ever seen before. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-nra-can-teach-us-about-the-art-of-public-persuasion-85610">What the NRA can teach us about the art of public persuasion</a>
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<p>In a closed meeting with NRA officials, One Nation is given a crash course on how to deal with bad press, particularly following mass shootings. </p>
<p><a href="https://gunfreedomradio.com/guests/lars-dalseide/">Lars Dalseide</a>, an NRA media liaison officer, is captured saying pro-gun lobbyists should smear supporters of gun control by accusing them of exploiting the tragedy. </p>
<p>He even provides a useful retort to anyone who might suggest that gun ownership might be a factor in a mass shooting. He says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>How dare you stand on the graves of those children to put forth your political agenda.</p>
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<p>“Just shame them to the whole idea,” he suggests, by arguing pro-gun campaigners should declare to opponents: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If your policy isn’t good enough to stand on its own, how dare you use their deaths to push that forward.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As he says this, Ashby is recorded replying: “That’s really good, very strong”.</p>
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<p>Some of that phrasing seems familiar in the immediate aftermath of the Christchurch massacre, suggesting parts of the NRA’s playbook have already made their way <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/richard-di-natale-is-using-christchurch-massacre-to-score-political-mileage-andrew-bolt/video/f59e2e416650faddf62c2070aea45014">down under</a>.</p>
<p>This documentary underscores two things. </p>
<p>The brutal tactics of the gun lobby and the operations of One Nation need exposing. Journalism sometimes has to take on the unsavoury job of extracting the truth from those who do not want to share it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114288/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Al Jazeera report makes for powerful viewing. But from a journalistic point of view, is it ethical?Andrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1098932019-01-20T08:41:19Z2019-01-20T08:41:19ZBooks paint contrasting pictures of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253858/original/file-20190115-152995-2n81iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African liberation struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Jon Hrusha</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Writings on South African liberation struggle icon Winnie Mandela almost all fall into one of two categories – either hagiography or demonology. These two books - <em>Truth, Lies and Alibis. A Winnie Mandela Story</em>, by Fred Bridgland and Sisonke Msimang’s <em>The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela. A Biography of Survival</em>, try to be more nuanced.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tafelberg.com/Authors/8809">Bridgland</a> was a correspondent for Britain’s leading right-wing newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. For years, he dispatched empathetic reports on an anti-communist hero of the cold war, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/feb/25/guardianobituaries.victoriabrittain">Jonas Savimbi</a> and his <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/unita.htm">UNITA movement</a>, which were at war with Angola’s ruling MPLA – an ally of the ANC.</p>
<p>Readers might take it for granted that anything he writes would be hostile to the ANC. So Bridgland makes a point of prefacing his <a href="http://www.tafelberg.com/Books/20572">book</a> on Winnie Mandela by first placing on record that Savimbi became paranoiac, and committed massacres of entire families of his leading officials. Bridgland is currently writing up these atrocities; in effect he attempts to so show his even-handedness.</p>
<p>Sisonke Msimang, author of <em>Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home</em>, has also written articles for the New York Times, the Guardian, and Al Jazeera. She writes near the start of her <a href="https://brittlepaper.com/2018/07/resurrection-winnie-mandela-sisonke-msimangs-book-october/">biography</a>: “I will not pretend otherwise: I am interested in redeeming Ma Winnie”.</p>
<p>But towards the end, she writes: “It is deeply uncomfortable to acknowledge Winnie’s involvement in Stompie’s death, and in the disappearances of Lolo Sono and Sibuniso Tshabalala, while also holding her up as a hero.</p>
<p>She qualifies her views further: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a perfect world, her place is not on a pedestal… I am prepared to raise her up in the hopes that, one day, South Africans might ethically and in good conscience take her down.(p.157)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Msimang also writes in her conclusion that she’s even prepared to say give up her admiration for the complicated Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. "I cannot do so, however, without a few conditions … The past must be opened up not just to grief, but to the structural nature of racism.” She means the class exploitation coloured by colonialism and finally apartheid.</p>
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<p>This review needs to start with three disclosures. This reviewer is a member of the African National Congress. He is also a friend of the Horst Kleinschmidt mentioned in Bridgland’s book. And he has, in the company of others, briefly met Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Zindi Mandela, and Nelson Mandela.</p>
<h2>Double standards</h2>
<p>The issues these two biographies raise, of liberators’ wartime actions, are not unique to South Africa. For example, post-WW2 readers, with their knowledge of the holocaust of six million Jews and three million Christian Poles, also have to debate Bomber Harris’ <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/05/the-carpet-bombing-of-hamburg-killed-40000-people-it-also-did-good/">saturation bombing</a> of German residential downtown areas and suburbs.</p>
<p>In chapter two Bridgland summarises the South African police’s Special Branch’s persecution of her. The remaining 27 chapters and epilogue summarise Madikizela-Mandela’s persecution of others. The overwhelming majority of facts in his book were published two decades ago - and never refuted.</p>
<p>His book also flags the issue of those who lobbied the then Chief Justice Corbett about Winnie’s pending trial. This included the then Minister of Justice, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/hendrik-jacobus-kobie-coetsee">Kobie Coetsee</a>, the then head of the National Intelligence Service Neil Barnard, and the then British ambassador Robin Renwick. He evidently didn’t rebuke any of them.</p>
<p>Msimang’s most persuasive arguments are when she points out the sexist double-standards in much of the condemnation of Zanyiwe Madikizela, better known as Winnie Mandela. She emphasises that it’s strange to perceive Winnie’s actions as motivated by psychiatric reasons rather than political. </p>
<p>She highlights that Winnie was not a radical outlier, but that during 1985-86 many ANC leaders and <a href="http://theappendix.net/posts/2013/12/radio-freedom-underground-radio-in-south-africa">Radio Freedom</a>, the then banned ANC’s underground radio station, made similar statements about insurrection, killing informers, and necklaces:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Winnie was not the only ANC leader who traded in recklessness and fiery rhetoric. But she was the only woman who was visibly doing so. (p.13)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Msimang also points out that Harry Gwala and other ANC warlords were committing in substance the same actions as Winnie Mandela, but with far less condemnation. </p>
<p>The same double-standards also apply to men and women political leaders having adulterous affairs: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the roles had been reversed and you had been imprisoned, things would have been very different. Nelson would have remarried and you would have languished forgotten on the island, and it would have been no reflection on him. Men have needs. Women sacrifice.</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Unsurprisingly, two such contrasting biographies also differ over the facts. Bridgland writes that the two hit men who assassinated <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/dr-abu-baker-asvat">Dr. Abu-Baker Asvat</a> - the Black consciousness exponent and doctor who tended to Stompie after his brutally assault to which Madikizela-Mandela was part - gave statements that Winnie Mandela had offered them R20 000 to kill him. Msimang writes that these were merely “rumours” and “No link has ever been established between Dr. Asvat’s death and Winnie Mandela.”</p>
<p>As this review goes to press, the ANC has <a href="https://www.enca.com/news/ramaphosa-apologises-winnie-not-getting-isithwalandwe-honour">posthumously awarded</a> Winnie Mandela its highest honour, the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/isitwalandweseaparankwe-award"><em>Isithwalandwe</em></a>. </p>
<p>The controversy continues in death as in life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109893/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Gottschalk is an ANC member.
He is also a friend of the Horst Kleinschmidt mentioned in the Bridgland book.</span></em></p>Controversy around Winnie Madikizela-Mandela continues in death as it did in life.Keith Gottschalk, Political Scientist, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/806002017-07-09T23:46:24Z2017-07-09T23:46:24ZWhy some Arab countries want to shutter Al Jazeera<p>On June 5 four Arab states – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt – declared a soft war on Qatar. They had a long <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/list-of-demands-on-qatar-by-saudi-arabia-other-arab-nations/2017/06/23/054913a6-57d0-11e7-840b-512026319da7_story.html?utm_term=.582646fd9029">list of demands</a>, ordering Qatar to weaken ties with Iran, expel Turkish military forces from the country and take other steps that would reduce Qatar’s influence in the region. They also demanded that Qatar close Al Jazeera, the Qatari-funded media network that, for years, has been critical of other Arab regimes. So far the Qatari government has resisted pressure to curb the activities of the network. </p>
<p>I’ve been studying and writing about Al Jazeera since its early years, sometimes with concern, sometimes with appreciation. My 2008 book “<a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/potomac/9781597972000/">The Al Jazeera Effect</a>” explored the political significance of regional satellite television news networks in the Arab world and beyond. </p>
<p>Although the politics of Al Jazeera remain controversial, I believe shutting down any news organization weakens the viability of a free press – particularly in a region where democracy has so much difficulty gaining traction.</p>
<h2>A critical eye</h2>
<p>When Al Jazeera launched in 1996, it shook the Arab media landscape. </p>
<p>At the time, stodgy, government-controlled television newscasts were the norm. They featured uncontroversial reporting with low production standards. Suddenly, there was a channel that offered relatively uncensored coverage of the region’s politics with the sleek look of Western news programs like those on BBC and CNN.</p>
<p>Most importantly, when there was a big story within the Arab World – such as the <a href="https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/jcs/article/view/220/378">Second Intifada</a>, the 2000 Palestinian uprising against Israel – Arab audiences no longer had to turn to Western broadcasters to get analysis about what was happening. Instead, they saw Arab reporters covering the news with a pro-Arab slant. Al Jazeera English, which was founded in 2006, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iZJmAQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA93&ots=YuIQgieAlX&dq=al%20jazeera%20english%20coverage%20global%20south&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">prides itself on covering more stories and perspectives</a> from the “Global South” than other news organizations.</p>
<p>More broadly, the channel became controversial because of its coverage of the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The George W. Bush administration considered its coverage inflammatory for highlighting civilian casualties in those conflicts, with government officials <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2004-04-27-21-1-67345137/272591.html">charging</a> that Al Jazeera was stirring up opposition to U.S. efforts in the region.</p>
<p>Yet Al Jazeera’s free-wheeling, pan-Arab approach has also been a source of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/06/23/why-saudi-arabia-hates-al-jazeera-so-much/?utm_term=.87147a12f752">ire for Middle Eastern rulers</a> who prefer to control the news that reaches their citizens. Al Jazeera has reported critically about these governments, especially those that are now acting against Qatar. Its talk shows have debated topics such as religion and women’s issues in ways that have redefined the concept of “free speech” in the Arab world. </p>
<p>There are, however, limits to Al Jazeera’s journalistic doggedness. Despite Al Jazeera’s eagerness to question the ruling classes of most Arab countries, the Qatari royal family isn’t covered with the same level of scrutiny. Rather, the channel has been seen as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/05/wikileaks-cables-al-jazeera-qatari-foreign-policy">a de facto part of Qatar’s foreign policy apparatus</a>. </p>
<h2>The Arab Spring: A turning point</h2>
<p>Two decades later, this history remains relevant. </p>
<p>Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been particularly upset with Al Jazeera and its Qatari owners since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. They viewed Al Jazeera as sympathetic to the protesters, and <a href="https://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/how-media-covered-arab-spring-movement-comparison-betweenthe-american-fox-news-and-the-middle-eastern-al-jazeera-2165-7912-1000281.php?aid=65342&view=mobile">thought the network fanned the flames of revolt</a> that threatened the region’s monarchies. </p>
<p>Al Jazeera has also covered the Muslim Brotherhood favorably, <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/qatar-crisis-why-saudis--want-al-jazeera-gone">which has infuriated Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi</a>, who orchestrated the coup that removed his elected Muslim Brotherhood predecessor. Even in the midst of the current controversy, Al Jazeera <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2017/07/saudis-funding-extremism-170705191135966.html">continues to report critically</a> about other Arab countries. </p>
<p>There is truth to the allegations that Al Jazeera Arabic’s reporting <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-qatar-jazeera-media-idUSKBN0F70F120140702">has a pro-Islamist slant</a>. Qatar’s adversaries say this reporting <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-06-10/inside-al-jazeera-pan-arab-channel-propaganda-outfit-or-essential-voice">takes the form of sympathetic coverage</a> of not only the Muslim Brotherhood but also Al-Qaida linked groups in Syria and Yemen.</p>
<h2>What would fill the void?</h2>
<p>Qatar <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/no-end-in-sight-to-arab-crisis-as-qatar-rejects-demands-amid-blockade/2017/07/05/950dbd9e-60e4-11e7-80a2-8c226031ac3f_story.html?utm_term=.70004050e320">has made clear</a> that it considers the demands from the Saudi-led group as an infringement on its sovereignty. Even if the Qataris compromise on some of the demands, it’s highly unlikely that they will shut down Al Jazeera. The network is one of Qatar’s signature achievements, a vehicle that helped fuel <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/25/qatar-global-power-guly-monarchy">the small nation’s global rise</a> over the past two decades. </p>
<p>Al Jazeera does not have a monopoly on broadcast news in the region – far from it. </p>
<p>Its principal competition comes from Al Arabiya, which reflects the viewpoints of its Saudi owners and would probably become the dominant Arab news channel if Al Jazeera were to disappear. There are other prominent news sources as well – Sky News Arabia, owned by a member of the UAE royal family, and on the other end of the ideological spectrum, Al Manar, which is the voice of Hezbollah. </p>
<p>This competition has cut into Al Jazeera’s market share and its influence. Nevertheless, Al Jazeera is an inviting target for Qatar’s adversaries because the channel has done so much to elevate Qatar on the world stage. In addition to the original Arabic channel and Al Jazeera English, there are Al Jazeera Balkans and several sports and children’s channels. Al Jazeera also produces documentaries and live special programming. </p>
<p>Al Jazeera is far from perfect, but for those who hope to see a more democratic Arab world, the network has shown that even news outlets and voices that lack an autocratic stamp of approval can find a place in the public discourse. Like anywhere else in the world, Arab society benefits from having a diversity of voices debating the issues of the day.</p>
<p>The Middle East has countless problems, but they won’t be resolved by rolling back already limited media freedom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80600/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Seib has contributed chapters to two books edited by the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies.</span></em></p>When the network launched in 1996, it radically changed the media landscape of the Arab world. Two decades later, some regimes are still seething.Philip Seib, Professor of Journalism and Public Diplomacy, USC Annenberg School for Communication and JournalismLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546202016-03-29T10:09:26Z2016-03-29T10:09:26ZCan a Russian-funded cable network actually promote free press in the U.S.?<p>With the recently announced shutdown of Al Jazeera America, the alternative cable news scene is in flux. </p>
<p>Launched as a corrective to the politicized and spectacle-heavy programming of Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, Al Jazeera America positioned itself as a fact-based, unbiased news source. Even though <a href="http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/fault-lines-made-in-bangladesh-al-jazeera-america">the network won awards for reporting</a>, the Qatari government-funded channel suffered from the public perception that it had an anti-Western, pro-Islamic stance. Amid lowering gas prices and reports of other financial woes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/al-jazeera-america-news-channel-to-close-up-shop/2016/01/13/aa3ab180-ba1f-11e5-99f3-184bc379b12d_story.html">the channel announced</a> it would shut down its U.S. operations at the end of April.</p>
<p>As Al Jazeera America closes shop, it’s worth wondering how this change will affect the position of <a href="https://www.rt.com/on-air/rt-america-air/">RT America</a> – previously known as Russia Today America – in the U.S. market. Like Al Jazeera, RT America has fashioned itself as a serious alternative to the politicized media circus promoted by the top three cable news stations. Unlike Al Jazeera, it runs ad-free, which arguably gives it even more potential for influence-free programming. </p>
<p>But RT America has some inherent contradictions: it offers a “Russian state perspective” in its news programming while simultaneously airing some of the most progressive shows on U.S. cable. As Julia Ioffe <a href="http://www.cjr.org/feature/what_is_russia_today.php">writes</a> in the <em>Columbia Journalism Review,</em> RT America often acts as a “shrill propaganda outlet” for the Kremlin – an identity that clashes with its desire to compete in the international news market. </p>
<p>At the same time, according to Ioffe, RT America understands that in order to effectively compete with other progressive, unbiased networks, it needs “to be taken seriously.” This realization, she explains, has led to some good reporting.</p>
<p>It’s a crazy notion – and a bit mind-boggling to consider – but RT America might be offering some of the most progressive, uncensored cable media programming in the U.S. today.</p>
<p>Certainly some will not be able to look past <a href="https://theconversation.com/russia-fighting-information-wars-with-borrowed-weapons-37960">the paradox</a> that a nation that has <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2015/russia">one of the lowest scores</a> on the press freedom index could also be funding a valuable alternative to mainstream cable news. </p>
<p>But when it comes to distorting the news, is the network any more culpable than mainstream cable networks? And can U.S. audiences overcome their inherent prejudice that RT America is just a propaganda arm for the Russian government? </p>
<h2>The RT America paradox</h2>
<p>Thus far, most coverage of RT America has focused on its ties to the Kremlin. But there’s a distinct difference between the news arm of the Moscow-based Russia Today and RT America’s opinion shows.</p>
<p>In short, the opinion and talk shows that populate RT America seem to have editorial freedom, while the news arm of RT does not. </p>
<p>One stark example took place over coverage of the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. </p>
<p>RT news anchor Liz Wahl <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h79v9uirLY">resigned on air</a>, citing disagreements with RT’s editorial policy. More recently, Moscow-based Sarah Firth – who worked for RT, not RT America – <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/russia-today-reporter-quits-slanted-719786">resigned in protest</a> over the way that the network was covering the Malaysian Airlines crash in Ukraine.</p>
<p>In contrast, Abby Martin, former host of “Breaking the Set,” an opinion show that aired on RT America from 2012 to 2015, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26440556">openly criticized Russian military intervention into Ukraine in March of 2014</a>. Yet she went on to continue to host her show for another year before moving on. <a href="http://mediaroots.org/never-stop-breaking-the-set/">In a note for Media Roots</a>, she explained she was leaving the show to pursue more investigative reporting and added “RT has given me opportunities I will be eternally thankful for.” </p>
<p>This suggests a divide at RT America over freedom of expression in opinion shows versus news coverage. It’s a distinction that is important to note and to critique. But it’s also one that suggests that the assumption that all RT America programming is tainted by propaganda may itself be an unfounded bias. </p>
<h2>The RT difference</h2>
<p>While Al Jazeera America and RT America both angled to offer an alternative to mainstream U.S. news media, there are many ways that RT has followed a different – and potentially more successful – path. </p>
<p>First, RT America made the smart move to remove Russia from its name. Al Jazeera refused to adjust its name to appeal to U.S. viewers and distance itself from its financial backers. </p>
<p>RT America has also differed radically in the sort of programming offered. Balancing out its daily news programming, RT America airs analysis and commentary shows by Larry King, Thom Hartmann, Jesse Ventura and former MSNBC host Ed Schultz – all established personalities with significant appeal to American audiences.</p>
<p>In addition, RT America has carved out a niche with millennial viewers, with two shows aimed at a younger audience and hosted by younger talent. The first, <a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/watching-the-hawks/">“Watching the Hawks,”</a> is a news magazine show hosted by Tyrel Ventura (Jesse’s son), Sean Stone (Oliver’s son) and Tabetha Wallace. </p>
<p>When they were announced as new hosts for a show on RT, <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/jesse-venturas-son-and-oliver-stones-get-a-show-at-russia-to#.lqoa0L3Bx">many dismissed the development</a>. Wallace told me, for instance, that she is often derogatorily called “Putin’s princess,” since it’s assumed the Russian leader controls her. </p>
<p>But I believe “Watching the Hawks” has fed viewers a consistent diet of cutting-edge stories on politics, media and culture. They often target corporate abuse, like pieces they’ve run on <a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/watching-the-hawks/331365-hsbc-investigation-elections-rundown/">HSBC</a> and <a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/watching-the-hawks/325950-muslims-us-solar-energy/">Dow-Dupont</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Wallace has reported on the annual gathering of veterans called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1E9LX369xs">“The Bikers of Rolling Thunder,”</a> and she covered the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kdURvs8NCs">70th Hiroshima Peace Ceremony</a>. In my opinion, both segments are solid examples of stories that had been largely ignored in the mainstream U.S. media. </p>
<p>The second millennial-oriented show on RT America is <a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/redacted-tonight-summary/">“Redacted Tonight,”</a> a satirical news program hosted by political comedian Lee Camp. </p>
<p>Camp – <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/10/06/im_making_comedy_out_of_the_darkest_issues_in_the_world_meet_the_john_oliver_of_russia_today/">described by Salon</a> as “Jon Stewart with sharper teeth” – appeals to an audience that has become <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/185927/americans-trust-media-remains-historical-low.aspx">increasingly dissatisfied</a> with mainstream news. </p>
<p>Since 9/11, satire news has increasingly been taken more seriously than “real” news (even though <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-daily-show-was-never-real-news-but-came-depressingly-close-37506">it doesn’t exactly live up to that standard</a>). Nonetheless, Jon Stewart <a href="http://time.com/3704321/jon-stewart-daily-show-fake-news/">was voted most trusted journalist</a> after Walter Cronkite died. And viewers of “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2007/04/15/public-knowledge-of-current-affairs-little-changed-by-news-and-information-revolutions/">scored higher</a> than viewers of network news in knowledge of public issues.</p>
<p>Taking advantage of the fact that RT airs no advertising, Camp goes after any and all corporate and political malfeasance he can uncover. And he makes his audience laugh while doing it. </p>
<p>Recent episodes highlighted how <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvP6edGhJvs">the media claimed Hillary Clinton won the first Democratic debate</a> even though Bernie Sanders won every poll, and pointed to the <a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/redacted-tonight-summary/333070-israel-palestine-capitalism-problems/">ongoing inability of the U.S. public</a> to have a meaningful conversation about Israel and Palestine. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SvP6edGhJvs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Like Jon Stewart, Lee Camp uses humor to criticize mainstream media coverage.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These sorts of shows were missing on Al Jazeera America. The network never attempted to break into the “fake news” market, despite the fact that it’s a <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2012/09/27/section-4-demographics-and-political-views-of-news-audiences/">growing source</a> of news and entertainment for young viewers. Nor did they provide the sort of hip, inquisitive programming found on “Watching the Hawks.” </p>
<p>Arguably, these two shows could build a young base of viewers for RT America. </p>
<h2>A network of independent personalities</h2>
<p>While skeptics may think that these shows can’t possibly be free of Kremlin influence, many of the top-billed hosts for RT America – Larry King, Jesse Ventura, Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz – all share a history of being independent thinkers.</p>
<p>Take Thom Hartmann’s show, “The Big Picture.” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom_Hartmann">Hartmann</a>, a radio and TV personality and author of over 25 books, has made his career as a progressive political commentator. His two writers work in RT America’s Washington, D.C. studio, and they both told me that they have zero restrictions on what they cover each night. </p>
<p>When I asked Hartmann, he said, “No one at RT has ever told me what to say and what not to say.” </p>
<p>Meanwhile he explained that in any given week, “The Big Picture,” covers at least three stories that simply would never appear on mainstream cable news. And yet, despite the fact that “The Big Picture” also airs on the progressive cable network <a href="https://www.freespeech.org/">Free Speech TV</a>, his presence on RT America has to contend with assumptions of censorship and control.</p>
<p>King has also done a series of interviews where he’s had to justify his ties to the network. In each case, he has explained that he hates censorship and that his own show is completely free of any editorial control. He has also <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/media/2015/11/i-hate-censorship-larry-king-his-journey-prime-time-tv-russia-today">openly disagreed</a> with Russian policies: “I certainly vehemently disagree with the position they take on homosexuals – that’s absurd to me.” </p>
<p>No one asks anchors on NBC how it feels to <a href="http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/the-military-industrial-media-complex/">work for a weapons contractor</a>. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unreliable-Sources-Guide-Detecting-Media/dp/0818405619/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457016139&sr=8-1&keywords=unreliable+sources">Numerous studies</a>, <a href="http://umich.edu/%7Enewsbias/institutional.html">including one</a> out of the University of Michigan, have shown that the link between GE and NBC has led to biased reporting. </p>
<p>Not only is the U.S. media influenced by corporatations; it’s also influenced by the federal government. </p>
<p>In 2006, journalists Amy and David Goodman <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Static.html?id=3T6ZAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false">reported</a> that “Under the Bush administration, at least 20 federal agencies … spent $250 million creating hundreds of fake television news segments that [were] sent to local stations.” They also documented how the government paid journalists in Iraq for positive reporting, and provided canned videos to air on cable news. </p>
<p>Given these examples of political and corporate influence on mainstream networks, it is worth wondering why RT gets criticized for bias while other networks get a free pass.</p>
<p>Lee Camp says he was drawn to RT in the first place precisely because of the editorial freedom. He knew he wouldn’t have to worry about pressure from advertisers. </p>
<p>As he explained in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4PtD0R9WsA">opening of one episode</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>People [ask] me why Redacted Tonight is on RT and not another network…I’ll tell you why. My anti-consumerism, anti-two-party-corporate-totalitarianism isn’t exactly welcomed with open arms on networks showing 24/7 Wal-Mart ads. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A new cultural Cold War?</h2>
<p>RT America has certainly embraced its paradoxical role of pushing media boundaries in the U.S. that likely wouldn’t be tolerated on Russian soil. But before we fall into Cold War dichotomies of U.S. press freedom and Russian media censorship, it’s important to note two key realities in the 21st-century media landscape.</p>
<p>First, while it’s important to hold RT America accountable for its coverage of Russia’s intervention into Ukraine, it’s worth noting that the U.S. media could equally be held accountable for its own coverage of the 9/11 attacks and the lead-up to the U.S.-Iraq War. </p>
<p>In 2015, <a href="http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2015/false/">four out of 10 Americans</a> still believed there were weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq – a level of disinformation that requires media compliance. These statistics show the long-lasting impact of media bias in shaping public opinion. </p>
<p>Furthermore, the current U.S. news media is filled not only with bias but also with outright lies. Fox News, <a href="http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/ratings-fox-news-channel-most-watched-cable-network-five-straight-weeks-1201712763/">the most-watched cable news network</a>, lies about 60 percent of the time, <a href="http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/article/2015/jan/27/msnbc-fox-cnn-move-needle-our-truth-o-meter-scorec/">according to Politifact</a>. For NBC and MSNBC, the score isn’t much better: 46 percent.</p>
<p>One wonders how RT America would compare.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophia A. McClennen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With the collapse of Al Jazeera America, there may be a case for RT America as a purveyor of progressive, alternative journalism.Sophia A. McClennen, Director, Center for Global Studies, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/532142016-01-15T03:52:01Z2016-01-15T03:52:01ZAl Jazeera to close in America: the future will not be broadcast<p>Yesterday came the <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/1/13/al-jazeera-america-to-close-down.html">surprising announcement</a> that Al Jazeera America (AJAM), the not even three-year-old US news franchise of the Arab media giant, was shutting down. Come April this year, up to 800 journalists may be looking for work and <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/al-jazeera-to-shut-down-american-news-channel-1452713303">more than US$2 billion of Qatari government money</a> will have been spent on what many consider a failed venture.</p>
<p>While several factors were likely at play in Al Jazeera’s decision to close AJAM, it ultimately comes down to money. The collapse in global oil prices is having a particularly severe impact on the economies of the Persian Gulf, forcing the government of Qatar to do the same <a href="http://dohanews.co/spending-slashed-qatar-prepares-run-qr46-5-billion-deficit/">across-the-board belt tightening</a> as its neighbouring states. Al Jazeera’s Doha-based operations were last year hit by budget cuts and just today, Qatari petrol prices which are set and subsidised by the government were <a href="http://dohanews.co/qatar-increases-petrol-prices-from-midnight-tonight/">raised by 30-35% in a shock decision</a> that was surely not taken lightly.</p>
<p>As explanation for its closure, AJAM cited a “simply [un]sustainable” business model “in light of the economic challenges in the U.S. media marketplace”. But it’s worth remembering that AJAM, like most of its 24-hour news competitors, was not launched to generate profit. The rolling television news business is largely about prestige and influence, and Qatar has demonstrated over 20 years that it is prepared to pay handsomely for those things. But with pitiful ratings and no real prospect of improvement, Al Jazeera and its benefactors seem to have decided that the cost of AJAM was not worth the tiny returns it generated.</p>
<p>Part of the reason AJAM failed in the US was its decision to pursue traditional broadcast distribution via cable. As Al Jazeera researcher William Youmans <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/01/14/this-is-what-doomed-al-jazeera-america/">noted</a>, restrictions placed on AJAM by cable providers were onerous and succeeded in preventing any significant leakage of content from the cable networks’ walled gardens to other platforms.</p>
<p>These restrictions forced potential AJAM viewers to be sitting in front of a TV set subscribed to the correct cable package and watching in real time. In 2016, when consumers expect to be able to dial up whatever content they want, on whatever device or platform they want, at whatever time they want, broadcasting exclusively at the wrong end of the cable dial is a sure path to failure.</p>
<p>Al Jazeera was also forced by its AJAM cable contracts to restrict American access to the enormously popular Al Jazeera English (AJE) livestream and its other online video content. AJAM’s failure is a testament to how ineffective this measure was in transitioning existing American Al Jazeera viewers to the new franchise.</p>
<p>In contrast, AJE, based in Qatar and broadcasting around the world via a multitude of platforms, is free to create and distribute content however it wishes. Television is still very much AJE’s primary focus, but its online arm is increasingly central to the channel’s operation. </p>
<p>While only one TV signal is beamed across the world to all viewers no matter where they are, AJE’s online arm targets specific content at different users based on a whole range of factors such as geographical location, social media preferences and the like. A large contingent of online journalists works alongside the main newsroom to augment the television output and create unique digital-only material. As a result, many AJE consumers never or rarely tune into the channel’s main TV signal.</p>
<p>Similarly, Al Jazeera’s digital-first startup, <a href="http://ajplus.net/english/">AJ+</a>, is going from strength to strength delivering short, sharp, engaging and shareable news content over social media networks and mobile apps. Barely a year old, the channel attracted <a href="http://digiday.com/publishers/al-jazeeras-distributed-content-unit-generated-2-2-bil-facebook-video-views-2015/">over 2 billion views</a> on Facebook alone in 2015.</p>
<p>Al Jazeera’s story in Australia is similar. The network certainly has a broadcast presence in Australia — primarily via AJE’s content-sharing partnerships with the ABC and SBS — but it is online that Al Jazeera is having the most impact. Despite its relatively low population, my own research (forthcoming) shows that Australia is the third-largest global source of traffic for AJE content online and that this Australian online audience continues to grow fast.</p>
<p>AJAM’s closure is a reminder that any of Al Jazeera’s operations could be wound up at a moment’s notice with the stroke of a pen. Having said that, it is difficult to foresee the same fate for AJE or the Arabic-language Al Jazeera channel any time soon. Unlike AJAM, those channels (despite recent challenges) remain enormously influential and probably continue to represent a valuable return on the government’s investment.</p>
<p>There is, however, one important lesson in AJAM’s closure for all media organisations in 2016, whether they exist for profit or for influence: the future of media is definitely not broadcast.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Bridges worked for Al Jazeera English on a freelance basis from 2010-2011.
Scott is the Managing Director of Australia-Middle East Journalism Exchange (AMEJE), a not-for-profit organisation that facilitates study tours for student journalists between Australia and the Middle East. AMEJE's study tours receive in-kind support from the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Australia.</span></em></p>Al Jazeera America was not launched to make a profit, but its traditional broadcast distribution model meant it also lacked influence.Scott Bridges, PhD candidate, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/370522015-02-02T02:31:45Z2015-02-02T02:31:45ZPeter Greste released: good news from the Middle East<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70765/original/image-20150202-25930-1d3xyxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australian journalist Peter Greste has finally been freed after 400 days in an Egyptian prison.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Khaled Elfiqi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The release of Peter Greste from an Egyptian prison is surprising only in that it happened without too much telegraphing of the exact date. A deportation-style resolution of the case had been on the cards for months, and Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had been expecting the announcement since before Christmas. That Greste is now free and on his way home is the best sort of news.</p>
<p>Spending 400 days in an Egyptian prison and enduring a confusing legal stoush would have been distressing for Greste and his co-accused. It’s no secret that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/egypts-president-wishes-peter-greste-aljazeera-reporters-had-not-been-tried-20140706-zsyct.html">wished that things might have been handled differently</a>. The show trial and its procedure cast Egypt’s new regime in a bad light internationally, despite the fact that it played well at home. That hurt the government, which was looking to bolster its credentials with the West. Once in the legal gears, though, the case had to progress to its inevitable conclusion.</p>
<p>However, al-Sisi very shrewdly took a position of letting the courts do their work. Stepping in and releasing everyone by presidential fiat would have invited criticism about the rule of law and the power of the head of state – particularly since former president Mohamed Morsi had himself been deposed partly upon his own tendency to declare himself above the courts.</p>
<p>So while al-Sisi publicly voiced his wish that the journalists could have been deported rather than put on trial, the courts got on with jailing them. Behind the scenes, though, there would have been pressure to come up with a legally structured solution that allowed everyone to save face.</p>
<p>That reached its conclusion today. At least for Peter.</p>
<h2>The Egyptian dilemma</h2>
<p>The trial, sentencing and release of Peter Greste serve to highlight the delicate state of Egyptian affairs in the years since Hosni Mubarak was swept from office. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31052064">As events of last week showed</a>, Egypt is facing a stubborn insurgency in the northern Sinai. This is nothing of the scale of what’s occurring in Iraq or Yemen, but it is worrying for a nation where absolute control was maintained for decades.</p>
<p>Such a rebellion causes a dilemma for al-Sisi. On one hand he needs to clamp down on the opposing ideology, as evidenced by the Al Jazeera case and the mass trials of Muslim Brotherhood supporters. On the other hand, he needs the continued financial and diplomatic support of the West and other Arab nations to fight this insurgency.</p>
<p>The Greste case typified this dilemma as the new regime took power and tried to juggle all these competing tensions. The shadow of Qatar and its ideological affinity for groups like the Muslim Brotherhood was also present.</p>
<p>Beyond this nest of tangled interests, though, the case illustrates the wider issue of press freedom in the Middle East. From Saudi bloggers to Japanese hostages, shedding light on the region can be a dangerous profession. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php">World Press Freedom Index</a> compiled by Reporters Without Borders, the Middle East and North Africa regions rank very poorly. The cluster of countries with the lowest ranking of “Very serious situation” is noticeable on the map. The link between freedom of the press and robust democracy is not given much airtime in the region.</p>
<p>So we should welcome Peter Greste back home to Australia and celebrate his release. But in doing so, remember that he is one of the lucky ones.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The release of Peter Greste from an Egyptian prison is surprising only in that it happened without too much telegraphing of the exact date. A deportation-style resolution of the case had been on the cards…Mat Hardy, Lecturer in Middle East Studies , Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/284412014-06-25T08:52:21Z2014-06-25T08:52:21ZCan international law help to free Peter Greste?<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/greste-and-al-jazeera-pay-the-price-in-egyptian-revolution-blowback-28332">guilty verdict and jail sentence</a> handed to Australian journalist Peter Greste and his Al Jazeera English colleagues Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed by an Egyptian court for conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood to broadcast false reports have provoked widespread outrage.
Looking beyond Egypt, can international law help free Peter Greste and his colleagues?</p>
<h2>What violations of international law have been committed by Egypt?</h2>
<p>Article 14 of the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1980/23.html">International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights</a> (ICCPR), to which Egypt is a party, sets out the requirements of a fair trial, starting with the entitlement:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Human Rights Committee, which monitors the ICCPR, <a href="http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/549DE4D8937F3459852574DE0052C973">has said</a> that this right is absolute, “not subject to any exception”, and that any court:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… must appear to a reasonable observer to be impartial.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Any reasonable observer would question the competence of the Egyptian court, which cannot even start its proceedings on time or maintain order. The head of Al Jazeera English, Al Anstey, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2014/06/victims-political-show-trial-201462315344610410.html">has said that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There were numerous irregularities in addition to the lack of evidence to stand up the ill-conceived allegations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The independence and impartiality of the court has been questioned by observers, who attribute the verdict to the hostility to Qatar by new Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s administration because of Qatar’s links to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Qatari government owns and finances Al Jazeera.</p>
<p>A fair trial must also include access by the defence to all evidence. Any appeal should review the sufficiency of the evidence. The <a href="http://www.news.com.au/world/gotyes-somebody-that-i-used-to-know-used-in-egyptian-court-against-peter-greste-and-aljazeera-colleagues/story-fndir2ev-1226966614480">evidence</a> actually presented at the Al Jazeera journalists’ trial was bizarrely inadequate, including a poor recording of Gotye’s hit Somebody That I Used To Know, photos of Peter Greste’s parents on holiday, a Panorama documentary about Somalia, footage of sheep, and a clip from Sky News Arabic that none of the accused actually worked on.</p>
<p>The judicial and political options in Egypt for appealing this verdict do not appear to provide hope for Greste’s supporters. There is justified scepticism about the likely outcome of an Egyptian appeal process when the initial trial itself was such a parody of competent judicial proceedings. </p>
<p>Sisi said on Tuesday that he would not interfere in the case. Echoing a <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/06/24/the-egyptian-government-on-why-it-jailed-greste-and-how-it-deals-with-foreign-journalists/">government statement</a> on Monday insisting that the trial had adhered to due process, he <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/peter-greste-egyptian-president-abdel-fattah-alsisi-says-he-will-not-interfere-in-judicial-rulings-20140624-zskjm.html">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We will not interfere in judicial rulings.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Can international law help to reverse this gross injustice?</h2>
<p>Prominent human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/geoffrey-robertson-calls-on-government-to-fight-for-peter-greste-at-the-hague-20140623-zsjgl.html">has said</a> that the Australian government could apply to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to force Egypt to free Greste in the same way Australia got Japan to <a href="https://theconversation.com/whaling-in-the-antarctic-japans-scientific-program-illegal-23824">end its Antarctic whaling program</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this avenue is not open. The ICJ is not like a domestic court which will hear any matter brought before it – its jurisdiction is limited. Australia was able to take Japan to the ICJ because both Australia and Japan broadly recognise the ICJ’s “compulsory jurisdiction” under Article 36 of the <a href="http://www.icj-cij.org/documents/index.php?p1=4&p2=2&p3=0&">court’s statute</a>. </p>
<p>While Egypt also recognises the ICJ’s compulsory jurisdiction, its acceptance, made in 1957, was specifically limited to disputes over Egyptian operation of the Suez Canal. States accepting the ICJ’s jurisdiction can apply such limits to it, and there is no way for the court to disregard them.</p>
<p>Even if it was possible to access the ICJ’s jurisdiction and win against Egypt, that would not greatly help Peter Greste. The average length of time for the ICJ to decide a matter is four years. Australia applied to the ICJ in the whaling case in May 2010 – the court announced its decision on March 31 this year.</p>
<p>There is no other international body that could make a binding decision about the Greste case. The most appropriate forum to raise this issue would be the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/pages/hrcindex.aspx">United Nations Human Rights Council</a>, which unfortunately concludes its current session this Friday and does not meet again until September.</p>
<p>The Abbott government has been regrettably inactive in the Human Rights Council. Australia is not currently a member of the council, but that does not stop us engaging actively with the council.</p>
<p>A cross-regional group of countries made a <a href="http://fngeneve.um.dk/en/news/newsdisplaypage/?newsID=EB280696-2F4F-427A-A721-5963916F2CB2">statement</a> to the Human Rights Council at its last meeting in March expressing concern at the human rights situation in Egypt, referring to the need to ensure the right to fair trial. Australia was not among them. Possibly, the Australian government decided that in the light of the then-ongoing Greste trial, this was the wiser course. </p>
<p>Now, we can see that restraining Australia’s voice on human rights in Egypt – and more generally – has not produced the right outcome for Peter Greste. It is time for the government to consider whether it is representing Australia effectively on this and other human rights issues by maintaining our silence on them in UN forums.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Boreham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The guilty verdict and jail sentence handed to Australian journalist Peter Greste and his Al Jazeera English colleagues Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed by an Egyptian court for conspiring with the Muslim…Kevin Boreham, Lecturer in International Law, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/283322014-06-24T03:56:12Z2014-06-24T03:56:12ZGreste and Al Jazeera pay the price in Egyptian revolution blowback<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51964/original/5dyp8czg-1403540518.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While Peter Greste may not have personally been guilty of any wrong-doing, he is carrying the can for wrath directed at his employer, Al Jazeera. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Khaled Elfiqi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-23/peter-greste-jailed-in-egypt/5543292">jail sentences</a> handed down to Australian journalist Peter Greste and his Al Jazeera English colleagues have <a href="https://theconversation.com/appalled-abbott-government-will-try-to-intervene-for-journalist-peter-greste-28359">deeply shocked</a> supporters in the west. While spending a few years in an Egyptian prison is nobody’s idea of a good time, what has been the most troubling aspect for many observers is the flimsiness of the evidence presented and the apparent lack of due process.</p>
<p>So why has this happened? What did Greste and his peers do that has landed them in this unhappy predicament? And why has this trial seemed so at odds with western expectations of justice?</p>
<p>The answers lie not so much with the individuals, but rather who they worked for. More importantly, the outcome is a reflection of the current political landscape in Egypt as the blowback from the 2011 revolution continues.</p>
<h2>The Muslim Brotherhood’s fraternity</h2>
<p>Unfortunately for the trio of journalists, they have been caught up in an Egyptian vendetta against the Al Jazeera network as whole. So while Greste the individual may not have been guilty of any wrong-doing, he is carrying the can for wrath directed at his employers. </p>
<p>As former Al Jazeera English journalist Scott Bridges <a href="https://theconversation.com/al-jazeeras-troubled-history-in-egypt-23504">pointed out</a> in The Conversation earlier this year, the old guard of Egypt have had a paranoid obsession with Al Jazeera for a long time, seeing it as a fifth column for radical Islam. </p>
<p>That may sound strange to English-speaking followers of the Al Jazeera website, but the regimes in the Middle East are more focused on the various Arabic-speaking organs of the network. Here, editorial standards can be more rubbery, and there has been steady criticism of Al Jazeera’s one-sided support for ousted former president Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, as well as for the Sunni opposition in Syria.</p>
<p>Al Jazeera’s links to the Emir of Qatar largely explain this. Supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and the related groups that formed governments in the wake of the Arab Spring has been a key plank in a strategy aimed at bolstering the Emir’s domestic legitimacy and positioning his nation as an important player in the Arab world. It is a policy which has seen Qatar at <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/03/will-gcc-survive-qatar-saudi-rivalry-201431864034267256.html">growing odds</a> with neighbours such as Saudi Arabia, causing serious rifts in the Gulf Co-Operation Council.</p>
<p>For the opposite side of Egyptian politics, Al Jazeera therefore represented a mouthpiece for the Morsi regime and a defiant challenge to the military’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/morsi-gets-his-marching-orders-15793">counter-revolution of 2013</a>. Constitutional clauses on press freedom were little impediment in a nation that has many decades of “state of emergency” mentality, where any challenge to the government is treated as treasonable.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51986/original/snw99vzj-1403579106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51986/original/snw99vzj-1403579106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51986/original/snw99vzj-1403579106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51986/original/snw99vzj-1403579106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51986/original/snw99vzj-1403579106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51986/original/snw99vzj-1403579106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51986/original/snw99vzj-1403579106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The charging, trial and conviction of Al Jazeera journalists has sparked international outrage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Dai Kurokawa</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legal eagles</h2>
<p>Once the Al Jazeera employees had become ensnared within the legal system the result was a foregone conclusion. Egypt’s legal Illuminati were the attacks dogs of the establishment during the interregnum between former president Hosni Mubarak and current president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. They ran the ball up through the courts, challenging Morsi and the reformers at every turn. </p>
<p>By retarding the electoral, parliamentary and constitutional processes, they eventually frustrated Morsi to the point where he <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/9697347/Mohammed-Morsi-grants-himself-sweeping-new-powers-in-wake-of-Gaza.html">over-reached</a> and tried to declare the presidency immune to the law, at least until a new constitution had been ratified.</p>
<p>It was an effective stalling tactic for the forces still loyal to Mubarak and the military. It meant that the Muslim Brotherhood made no progress in dealing with the irreconcilable economic and societal reforms that the initial revolution was centred on. </p>
<p>Coupled with Morsi’s tendency for nepotism and some dire warnings playing out in Libya and Syria, it wasn’t long before the crowds were back on the streets, fanned along by the military and the promise of a return to “stability”.</p>
<p>Part of this return to order has been the use of the courts to impose heavy penalties on anyone even remotely associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. That included Al Jazeera’s employees.</p>
<p>Regardless of Al Jazeera’s editorial policies, what seems unarguable is that the charges against Greste and his colleagues are false and unsupported by even a skerrick of evidence. The difficulty is that “unarguable” gets no traction when you’re not allowed to argue. Throughout the trial, the possibility of mounting a defence has been voided by a judicial process that can best be characterised as “ad hoc”.</p>
<p>There is a great deal of face-saving in this charade. Once the trial began, there was no real chance to stop matters proceeding to the tragic conclusion despite the lack of any tangible evidence. Trapped by their own rhetoric, had the Egyptian authorities dropped the charges they would have been open to the criticism they were under the influence of external parties: that the west, or Qatar, or the media or, worst of all, the Muslim Brotherhood, were calling the shots.</p>
<p>This was not an option for a new government elected on a “get tough” platform. The example they have made of Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed is a strong signal to the press in general, but Al Jazeera specifically.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51985/original/qh5b8sfn-1403578675.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51985/original/qh5b8sfn-1403578675.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51985/original/qh5b8sfn-1403578675.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51985/original/qh5b8sfn-1403578675.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51985/original/qh5b8sfn-1403578675.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51985/original/qh5b8sfn-1403578675.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51985/original/qh5b8sfn-1403578675.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Acquitting Greste and his colleagues was an unpalatable option for Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s (centre) government.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Is there hope?</h2>
<p>If there is a ray of hope in this story, it is that a seven-year stretch is lenient in comparison to the mass death sentences that have been <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27952321">handed down</a> to hundreds of Egyptians by the same courts. This opens the prospect that after a suitable period of face-saving, Greste and his colleagues may be allowed free on some sort of appeal or clemency deal. However, that will be cold comfort for the accused and their families.</p>
<p>What this sorry affair does demonstrate is that journalism is not a safe profession in many parts of the world. We know about this Egyptian story because, somewhat atypically, it involves a western citizen. But for every web page we skim through covering the Middle East there are plenty of people, including locals, gathering and presenting that material. And, at any time, those people may be putting their life or liberty at risk to do that work.</p>
<p>And mostly, their sacrifices go unreported.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mat Hardy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The jail sentences handed down to Australian journalist Peter Greste and his Al Jazeera English colleagues have deeply shocked supporters in the west. While spending a few years in an Egyptian prison is…Mat Hardy, Lecturer in Middle East Studies , Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/283492014-06-23T22:29:22Z2014-06-23T22:29:22ZVerdict in Al Jazeera trial shows regime’s contempt for press freedom in Egypt<p>Three Al Jazeera English journalists have been convicted in the Cairo Criminal Court of spreading false news, threatening national security and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood – previously Egypt’s first democratically elected government now deemed a terrorist organisation. </p>
<p>The trial judge, Mohamed Nagy, handed Australian journalist, Peter Greste, and his Egyptian-Canadian colleague, Mohamad Fadel Fahmy, seven-year sentences in a maximum security prison. Egyptian Al Jazeera journalist Baher Mohamad was given an additional three years for being in possession of a spent bullet casing he picked up. </p>
<p>The “Al Jazeera Three” were tried with 20 other defendants – some of whom were students thought to be members of the Brotherhood – and other foreign correspondents, including the Dutch journalist Rena Netjes and British journalists Sue Turton and Dominic Kane, who were all tried in absentia and received ten-year sentences. </p>
<p>The international community has expressed its shock and outrage. Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, <a href="https://theconversation.com/appalled-abbott-government-will-try-to-intervene-for-journalist-peter-greste-28359">remarked on the appalling severity of the verdict</a> while in the UK, both foreign minister, William Hague, and the prime minister, David Cameron, said they were “appalled” by the verdict. The EU has said it is “extremely concerned” and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, called the verdict “chilling and draconian”. Several Western countries have summoned Egyptian ambassadors. Amnesty International’s director, Steve Crawshaw, called the sentence “Outrageous … [an] absolute affront to justice.”</p>
<h2>No credible evidence</h2>
<p>The prosecution lacked any credible evidence in the case, producing an array of elements as evidentiary support ranging from the dubious to the surreal, including the playing of inaudible recordings in court, showing clips from networks other than Al Jazeera, and even a pop video by Gotye, an Australian singer. </p>
<p>These judgments are part of the new Egyptian government’s strategy to <a href="https://theconversation.com/egypt-qatar-and-the-battle-over-al-jazeera-thats-landed-three-journalists-in-jail-28363">marginalise the influence of Qatar</a> at the behest of the new Egyptian regime’s Saudi allies. Qatar, where Al Jazeera is headquartered, supports the Muslim Brotherhood. </p>
<p>But the sentences also serve as a stark reminder of the intimidation experienced by journalists on the ground – whether foreign or Egyptian – and the dismal environment in which political dissent and opposition navigate <a href="https://theconversation.com/egyptian-regimes-charges-against-me-are-baseless-and-politically-motivated-22334">at great personal risk</a>. The judiciary has in recent months sentenced more than 1,000 Brotherhood supporters to death, including, just last week, Muslim Brotherhood’s general guide, Mohamad Badie, and at least 182 of the organisation’s supporters. </p>
<h2>No due process</h2>
<p>The verdicts will still go through an appeals process, but given they came the day after Kerry’s personal meeting with Egypt’s recently elected president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the Egyptian regime seems to have been callously heedless of guaranteeing due process in the trial. </p>
<p>Sisi has led a crackdown on any political dissent since Mohamad Morsi’s ousting by the military in July 2013. Islamists and Brotherhood supporters, prominent human rights advocates and protestors have all come under attack with an estimated 41,000 arrested since the military takeover. The al Jazeera verdicts surely highlight the reality of the current state of media freedom in Egypt and the grim continuation of the regime’s crackdown. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sis.gov.eg/Newvr/Dustor-en001.pdf">Article 70 of Egypt’s new constitution</a> guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the press. However, prior to being elected Egypt’s president, Sisi made a statement to the editors of the nation’s primary newspapers that freedom of the press should be balanced with national security. Al Jazeera, in particular, has come under attack by the Egyptian regime for its supposed sympathies with the Muslim Brotherhood. This trial is a clear message that opposition voices, including journalists, may also fall victim to the state’s arbitrary security measures. Despite scant evidence, the judiciary appears all too willing to issue politically useful but legally nonsensical verdicts at the expense of any semblance of human rights or the rule of law.</p>
<p>These verdicts send a chilling message to all journalists, and particularly to Egyptian journalists trying to do their job, who cannot rely on the attention of the international media or the support of foreign governments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28349/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Teti is affiliated with the European Centre for International Affairs. He receives funding from the Carnegie Trust for Universities of Scotland.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Hynek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Three Al Jazeera English journalists have been convicted in the Cairo Criminal Court of spreading false news, threatening national security and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood – previously Egypt’s first…Sarah Hynek, Postgraduate researcher, University of AberdeenAndrea Teti, Director, Centre for Global Security and Governance, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/283632014-06-23T19:38:21Z2014-06-23T19:38:21ZEgypt, Qatar and the battle over Al Jazeera that has landed three journalists in jail<p>The guilty verdict for three Al Jazeera journalists, who have been handed sentences of between seven and ten years for “aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and reporting false news” has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/appalled-abbott-government-will-try-to-intervene-for-journalist-peter-greste-28359">widely condemned</a> as a blow against press freedom in the region. The move is being seen as the action of a repressive government hell bent on stifling all dissent.</p>
<p>Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy, and Baher Mohamed were arrested in Cairo last December as they covered the turmoil that followed the army’s removal of Mohamed Morsi from the presidency in July.</p>
<p>Once praised for providing an alternative voice to Western networks, Al Jazeera is now regarded by many Egyptians as the mouthpiece, not just of the Muslim Brotherhood, officially labelled a terrorist group, but also of the enemy of Egypt’s military rulers, Qatar.</p>
<p>After the toppling of Morsi’s rule, the offices of Al Jazeera and the Egyptian media outlets linked to Islamic movements were shut down and Al Jazeera’s journalists in Doha were banned from entering Egypt. </p>
<p>The fallout and diplomatic rift between Egypt and Qatar has <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bbd82882-e94d-11e2-bf03-00144feabdc0.html#axzz35U0BzjZ3">escalated in the media domain</a> and culminated in the long prison sentences handed down to the three journalists, who were working for Al Jazeera English. The channel had been <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/broadcast/2011/12/arab-channel-jazeera-qatar">celebrated for its pivotal role during the Egyptian revolution</a> in 2011.</p>
<p>But the tension between Egypt and Qatar over Al Jazeera’s coverage has been brewing for some time. During its extensive coverage of the Gaza conflict in 2009, the channel criticised the Egyptian government for reluctance to open its border with Gaza Strip and allow humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Al Jazeera then gave a platform to Arab critics to accuse then president Hosni Mubarak of complicity with Israel. In response, Egyptian state and independent television channels waged a <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/egypt-offensive-after-critical-al-jazeera-coverage/8070">wave of criticism against al Jazeera</a> accusing it of engaging in a media war against Egypt. Mubarak, did not conceal <a href="https://theconversation.com/al-jazeeras-troubled-history-in-egypt-23504">his view of Qatar and Al Jazeera</a>. When Morsi was elected in 2012, Qatar had supported him and the Muslim Brotherhood. But the win damaged Egypt’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which had been fervent supporters of Mubarak.</p>
<h2>Rift deepens</h2>
<p>Since the end of Morsi’s rule in July 2013, the rift between Egypt and Qatar has deepened. Many journalists <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/media/2013/08/21/How-Al-Jazeera-skews-its-coverage-of-Egypt.html">condemned Al Jazeera’s coverage</a> of the Egyptian affairs. </p>
<p>Journalists affiliated with the station’s Egyptian outlet, Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr (Egypt Live), <a href="http://www.aawsat.net/2013/07/article55309195">resigned</a> over what they called prejudiced coverage. Fatima Nabeel, one of the journalists who resigned, said she felt the <a href="http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/7282.htm">channel was partisan</a> in favour of political Islam and that “selectivity was excercised in broadcasting”. </p>
<p>Then, journalists discovered to be working for al Jazeera faced persecution. In May, Rasha al Sayyed Abdo, a female freelance journalist, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27636127">was arrested</a> in Port Said for working with Al Jazeera Mubashir Misr.</p>
<p>In fact, Al Jazeera has long been accused by some of serving the Islamists’ agenda since its inception in mid-1990s. The channel was accused of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/alqaida/page/0,12643,839823,00.html">forging links with al-Qaeda</a>. It had journalists <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jul/17/guantanamo-bay-al-jazeera">imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay</a> and put under house arrest. </p>
<p>The channel was also seen by critics as a platform for controversial Islamic clerics such as Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, one of the former leading figures of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was stripped of his Egyptian citizenship in the 1970s, forcing him to take Qatar as his new home. Qatar was also the refuge of the political leadership of Hamas, and it hosted the Taliban’s first official overseas office in 2013. For many Egyptian commentators, Qatar’s paradox is that it accommodates <a href="http://www.el-balad.com/934059">controversial Islamists</a> while hosting one of the biggest US military bases in the region. </p>
<p>The Egyptian veteran journalist Adel Hammouda devotes a weekly programme on the independent television Annahar to scrutinise Qatar arguing that it possibly has a desire to take a leading role in the region and using Al Jazeera as a PR tool. <a href="http://new.elfagr.org/Detail.aspx?nwsId=553304&secid=18&vid=2#">Hammouda alleged</a> that the former emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, possibly suffered from “size complex” and he therefore supported the US agenda in dividing the Arab countries into tiny states like Qatar. </p>
<p>While the sentencing of Al Jazeera’s journalists has been condemned by western media organisations as well as governments, Egyptian persecutors demanded the maximum penalty for all journalists regarded as serving as a mouthpiece for the Brotherhood. Yehia al Gamal, former deputy Prime Minister in 2011, <a href="http://www.elwatannews.com/news/details/382672">told al Watan newspaper when the trial began</a> that he supported the maximum penalty for the journalists while accusing Al Jazeera of implementing a US-led agenda. The trial and verdict come at a time when Egyptian officials and commentators call for Egypt to end its dependency on the US – and the West.</p>
<p>Amid reports regarding insufficient evidence and an inadequate trial, there may still be a slight chance for the verdict to be overturned on appeal. Even so, the case still marks one of the biggest challenges for the exercise of freedom of speech in Egypt since the end of the Brotherhood’s rule. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noha Mellor has previously received research funding. This article was not financially supported by external funding.</span></em></p>The guilty verdict for three Al Jazeera journalists, who have been handed sentences of between seven and ten years for “aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and reporting false news” has been widely condemned…Noha Mellor, Professor, Research Institute for Media, Arts and Performance, University of BedfordshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/276332014-06-12T20:36:10Z2014-06-12T20:36:10ZUser-generated content: media can learn from the ‘Wild West’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50804/original/kwnjh27t-1402464285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the aftermath of disasters like the Boston marathon bombing, footage from citizen journalists is sometimes the 'only option'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">marsmettn tallahassee/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>User-generated content has become “a central element of the news gathering process,” says the controller of BBC World (English) Richard Porter, in a recently-released international <a href="http://towcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Tow-Center-Amateur-Footage-A-Global-Study-of-User-Generated-Content-in-TV-and-Online-News-Output.pdf">study</a> by the US-based Tow Centre for Digital Journalism. </p>
<p>The report defines user-generated content (UGC) as “photographs and videos captured by people who are not professional journalists and who are unrelated to news organizations”.</p>
<p>Most of the newsrooms included in this study, located all across the world, use UGC in their output. </p>
<p>Topping the list are Al Jazeera English, CNN and <a href="http://www.euronews.com/the-station/">Euronews</a>, but the BBC is not far behind with “the biggest dedicated UGC unit within the news industry”. News Corporation has gone one better and just before Christmas <a href="http://www.pehub.com/2013/12/news-corp-buys-vc-backed-storyful-for-25-mln/">bought the huge UGC site Storyful</a>.</p>
<p>Conflict (mostly Syria), protests and car crashes led the topics where UGC was most included, and availability was a big reason, with UGC often delivering “the only available pictures”.</p>
<p>This is a double-edged sword - UGC pictures and vision become “more available” precisely when they become “less available” from professional staff who have been laid off, such as the photographic staff <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-fairfax-cuts-photographers-what-price-for-a-news-picture-26442">at Fairfax recently</a>. </p>
<p>If you employ fewer photographers, UGC content steadily becomes the “only available”. The same logic applies to text content.</p>
<p>But one telling phrase authors Claire Wardle, Sam Dubberley and Pete Brown say peppered their interviews with news editors and managers was: “There’s a Wild West attitude about getting stuff off the internet”. </p>
<p>This emerged from their interviews with 64 news managers, editors, and journalists from 38 news organisations, located in 24 countries including the ABC and Sky News in Australia.</p>
<p>The editor-in-chief of Radio Popolare in Italy, Marina Petrillo, has publicly compared UGC to wallets that journalists pick up off the ground: “They take out the contents without even bothering to look for a name inside.”</p>
<p>While “content is located at the scene of a breaking news event” and “newsrooms encourage people to send photos or videos directly” a lot of harvesting from social media goes on. They call it “social newsgathering” and it’s a lot like the social newsgathering reporters used to do in pubs. </p>
<p>The harvest is mostly “free” since apparently requests for payment from “citizens” are rare. </p>
<p>But the researchers found an editor who had drawn a line in his head to deal with the issue of payment to “accidental journalists”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You’re not trained, you’re not a journalist, you’re not a freelancer and you’re not someone we want to take responsibility for.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Trouble is, many “user-content generators” are indeed trained, qualified to call themselves journalists and able to describe themselves correctly as “freelancers,” with or without that editor’s grudging permission. </p>
<p>These are the graduates of the university journalism courses which became popular worldwide in the 1970s and continue to attract strong enrolments everywhere. These graduates have been trained in the ways of institutional journalism by skilled practitioners.</p>
<p>They begin producing news and feature products (including photography) as part of their studies and are encouraged to sell their work into the established media market but also feed “street” publications and the community radio and television sector. </p>
<p>This has continued to the point where, <a href="http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/resources/FoJAbstracts.pdf">in 2007</a>, more paid journalism positions existed in Australia outside major newsrooms than within “Big Media”, without the total number of positions dropping. </p>
<p>I’m compiling the latest figures from 2013 with the help of two student journalists at Swinburne University of Technology – Lucy Gilbert and Lily Jovic (now graduated) – and it looks like there are still more paid jobs now, even after the crushing downsizing in established media in the past few years. </p>
<p>They’re just <a href="http://eventmechanics.net.au/2014/06/journalism-jobs/">spread wider</a> in magazines and websites. Instead of a declining industry, journalism is actually a thriving market but the market is changing and we have to change with it. </p>
<p>If user-generated content is such a big problem, it might also be an enormous opportunity for Big Media journalists to figure out what “those other journalists” are producing. </p>
<p>Publishers such as the BBC with its UGC Hub, and News Corp with Storyful, could start to analyse what’s coming in from citizen journalists as a way of working out what’s happening out there in the Wild West. Let’s hope they’re already doing it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Cokley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>User-generated content has become “a central element of the news gathering process,” says the controller of BBC World (English) Richard Porter, in a recently-released international study by the US-based…John Cokley, Associate Professor in Journalism, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/275592014-06-05T11:27:33Z2014-06-05T11:27:33ZThe rise was stunning, but Qatar has plenty of other worries besides football<p>The highly visible role <a href="http://monde-arabe.arte.tv/en/qatar-an-economic-and-religious-offensive/">played by Qatar</a> in spearheading the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12813859">Arab Spring uprisings</a> in north Africa and Syria in 2011 focused world attention on this tiny Gulf emirate. It capped a remarkable year that began with the stunning announcement in December 2010 that this country of two million – of whom only 200,000 are Qatari nationals – would host the <a href="http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/qatar2022/">2022 FIFA World Cup</a>. </p>
<p>Behind these headlines lay a powerful country branding strategy. It took advantage of a benign set of political, economic and security factors in the early 2000s that shaped Qatar’s integration into the international system and imprinted it into the public consciousness. </p>
<p>The dilemma for the young new emir, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23046307">Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani</a>, as he approaches one year in power, is that the levels of global scrutiny that accompanied the country’s emergence as a regional actor with international reach threaten now to do more harm than good to Qatar’s international image. </p>
<h2>A place in the sun</h2>
<p>Numerous factors explain Qatar’s sudden rise to prominence. These include the decision made in 1995 by the incoming leadership of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/emir-of-qatar-profile-who-is-sheikh-hamad-bin-khalifa-al-thani-how-did-he-turn-qatar-into-the-worlds-richest-nation-and-why-has-he-decided-to-abdicate-8672997.html">Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani</a>, the previous emir, to fast-track development of the country’s vast reserves of natural gas. </p>
<p>His administration also displayed a nuanced understanding of the <a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2014/03/20/the-state-of-qatar-a-first-hand-account-of-soft-power/">projection of “soft power”</a>, and, critically, the country enjoyed a highly fortuitous balance between demands and resources. This last factor enabled Qatar to avoid the socio-political and economic pressures generated by the Arab uprisings elsewhere, as in Bahrain, only twenty miles off its northwest shore. </p>
<p>The emir and his prime minister (and foreign minister), <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/sheikh-hamad-bin-jassim-bin-jaber-althani-meet-the-man-who-bought-london-8669134.html">Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani</a> (who both stepped down in June 2013) also pursued an aggressive strategy of internationalisation in order to build for Qatar a worldwide network of investments and strategic partnerships. In particular, supplying <a href="https://www.qatargas.com/English/Pages/default.aspx">liquefied natural gas (LNG)</a> to leading industrialised and emerging economies thickened the web of interdependencies with powerful external actors and gave them a direct stake in the security and stability of Qatar.</p>
<p>As a tiny country in a volatile region that has experienced three major wars since 1980, the task of managing relations with more powerful and potentially aggressive larger neighbours has been a feature of Qatari policy-making objectives. </p>
<h2>The great balancing act</h2>
<p>This need to diversify the bases of external support led the country to develop a reputation for balancing seemingly incompatible policies. It hosts the regional headquarters of <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL31718.pdf">United States Central Command (CENTCOM)</a> and <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com">Al-Jazeera</a>, for example. </p>
<p>It has discrete ties with Israel yet has provided safe haven to Islamists such as <a href="http://themuslim500.com/profile/sheikh-dr-yusuf-al-qaradawi">Yusuf Al-Qaradawi</a>, who are deemed too radical for other states in the Middle East and in the West. Above all, it relies absolutely on the United States for its security while sharing the world’s largest non-associated offshore gas field with large regional neighbour Iran. </p>
<p>Building on its emergence as a gas superpower, the past decade has seen Qatar translate its growing international leverage into considerable soft-power assets. Especially significant was the establishment (by emiri decree) in November 1996 of Al-Jazeera. Showing a level of editorial independence and investigative reporting that far outmatched its regional state-run competitors, it rapidly gained a mass following across the Arab world. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j4s7iffgfdI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Highlights from Al-Jazeera’s Iraq coverage.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Its coverage of Iraq made it a target for the Bush administration, while its no-holds barred reporting saw it banned from numerous countries. These included Saudi Arabia, which <a href="http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200209/30/eng20020930_104178.shtml">withdrew its ambassador</a> from Doha between 2002 and 2007. </p>
<p>In November 2006 the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/aboutus/2006/11/2008525172949768994.html">creation of a sister English channel</a> internationalised the brand, largely through its critically acclaimed coverage of Israel’s offensive in Gaza in 2009. Its subsequent reporting of the Arab Spring uprisings firmly imprinted Al-Jazeera on the global consciousness, although Al-Jazeera Arabic’s coverage of the upheaval <a href="http://www.meforum.org/3147/al-jazeera">reinforced regional perceptions</a> that Qatar was aligning policy behind political Islamists linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Other examples of Qatar’s international branding strategy at work include creating the <a href="http://www.myeducationcity.com">Education City</a> centre of regional educational excellence, with its branch campuses from six leading American universities and University College London. </p>
<p>Qatar has aggressively expanded on the <a href="http://kerdowney.com/destinations/qatar/">luxury-end tourism</a> and <a href="http://vae.ahk.de/en/trade-fairs/calendar-gulf-region/trade-fairs-in-qatar/">trade fair circuit</a>. There has been <a href="http://www.qia.qa">sovereign-wealth investment</a> in iconic global brands such as Harrods, Porsche, and the Shard skyscraper in London, while the country has hosted other international organisations such as the <a href="http://www.gecf.org">Gas Exporting Countries’ Forum</a>; and gatherings such as the <a href="http://www.20wpc.com">World Petroleum Congress in 2011</a> and the <a href="http://unfccc.int/meetings/doha_nov_2012/meeting/6815.php">COP 18 round of climate change negotiations in 2012</a>. Coupled with Qatar’s geographic location between West and East, these moves were designed to position the country as a central pivot around which a broader global rebalancing is taking place.</p>
<h2>The cracks behind the make-up</h2>
<p>Yet it is not all plain sailing for Qatar. The World Cup has attracted relentlessly negative attention over issues ranging from the <a href="http://gizmodo.com/a-bleak-look-at-the-life-of-migrant-workers-building-qa-1584898504">desperate plight of migrant labourers</a> to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fifa-lawyers-would-find-it-hard-to-strip-qatar-of-the-world-cup-27488">murky depths of football politics</a> and a <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/qatars-activism-sparks-a-backlash/1832277.html">post-Arab-Spring backlash</a> against Qatar by re-empowered status quo forces across the region. Earlier this year, a growing sense that Qatari support for Islamists threatened regional security <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26447914">prompted the Saudis to once again withdraw</a> their ambassador from Doha, along with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. </p>
<p>Considerations of national pride mean the Qatari leadership will probably fight tooth and nail to keep the World Cup, but it will be uneasily aware that the challenges have in fact only just begun. The fact that the new government <a href="http://www.mlssoccer.com/worldcup/2014/news/article/2014/04/21/world-cup-qatar-scales-back-2022-plans-will-host-event-eight-stadiums">recently scaled back</a> ambitious plans outlined in the bid document for 12 air-conditioned stadia indicates that the enormous financial costs are coming sharply into focus amid signs it is trying to rein in some of the more profligate legacies of its predecessor. As the searing summer heat approaches, cooler heads in Doha may well be asking themselves if the World Cup is worth another eight years in the public eye. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristian Coates Ulrichsen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The highly visible role played by Qatar in spearheading the Arab Spring uprisings in north Africa and Syria in 2011 focused world attention on this tiny Gulf emirate. It capped a remarkable year that began…Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Baker Institute Fellow For Kuwait, Rice UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/235042014-03-03T00:55:56Z2014-03-03T00:55:56ZAl Jazeera’s troubled history in Egypt<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42724/original/w46qf8p5-1393560694.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's behind Al Jazeera's frosty relationship with the Egyptian government?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Terry Scott</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1999, then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak visited the small, dusty Al Jazeera compound in a suburb of the Qatari capital of Doha. “This matchbox! All this noise is coming out of this matchbox?” Mubarak <a href="http://www.layalina.tv/index.php/vol-vii-no-4-02-11-02-24-2011/al-jazeera-the-matchless-matchbox">reportedly exclaimed</a>.</p>
<p>Ever since its launch in 1996, the trailblazing satellite news channel has been generating lots of unwelcome noise for governments and regimes throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It was the first pan-Arab broadcaster to facilitate open discussion about previously taboo topics. Al Jazeera engaged a citizenry raised on a diet of stale, impotent state media, and invited it to publicly question the status quo on a range of issues from governance to religion. </p>
<p>In its first decade, Al Jazeera triggered over 450 diplomatic complaints to the Qatari government, which funds the network, and the recall of at least six ambassadors from Doha.</p>
<p>But its relationship with Egypt – the Arab world’s most populous and arguably most influential state – has been one of the most complicated. The recent arrest of three Al Jazeera English employees, including <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-30/australian-journalist-peter-greste-among-al-jazeera-reporters-d/5179070">Australian journalist Peter Greste</a>, on outrageous charges of broadcasting news that endangers “domestic security” is just the latest move in a long game of chess between the two players that stretches back for nearly two decades.</p>
<h2>Early years</h2>
<p>As early as the 1990s, economic disputes at the state level affected Al Jazeera’s operations in Egypt. The Mubarak administration viewed the channel as a direct proxy for the Qatari emir.</p>
<p>In specific instances, Egyptian guests who had been invited to appear on Al Jazeera programs were prevented from departing Cairo airport for Doha. </p>
<p>The Second Palestinian Intifada from 2000, and Al Jazeera’s coverage of it (which included footage of Palestinians burning Egyptian flags), generated much anger in Egypt. The Egyptian government accused Al Jazeera of undermining the regime and the country’s stability.</p>
<p>Despite these skirmishes, Al Jazeera had by mid-2000 signed an expensive deal to move its Egyptian operations to Cairo’s new Media City. Commentators suggested a deal to tone down the channel’s coverage of Egyptian affairs, although any change to its editorial approach was denied by then-managing director Mohammed Jasim Al-Ali.</p>
<h2>Recent times and the Egyptian revolution</h2>
<p>By 2011, Al Jazeera was operating inside Egypt with relative freedom, and the original Arabic channel had been joined by its English-language sister. </p>
<p>As the mass protests of that year’s revolution gathered pace, Al Jazeera’s staff from both channels was repeatedly raided, arrested and detained. The dying Mubarak regime lashed out at the journalists it held partly responsible for its demise.</p>
<p>After Mubarak’s fall, the immediate threat to media outlets subsided, but an undertone of suspicion remained. Al Jazeera continued to report from Egypt as Mohamed Morsi became the country’s first democratically elected president, and then as he was <a href="https://theconversation.com/morsi-gets-his-marching-orders-15793">deposed by the military</a> 12 months later. This coup would mark a major deterioration in relations between Al Jazeera and Egypt.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42731/original/j7d4wgvg-1393565732.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42731/original/j7d4wgvg-1393565732.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42731/original/j7d4wgvg-1393565732.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42731/original/j7d4wgvg-1393565732.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42731/original/j7d4wgvg-1393565732.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42731/original/j7d4wgvg-1393565732.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42731/original/j7d4wgvg-1393565732.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The future of Egypt remains uncertain – as does the freedom of media to report on the Middle East state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Al-Masry Al-Youm</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After Morsi’s ouster, the Muslim Brotherhood was marginalised before finally being declared a terrorist organisation. Any person deemed to be co-operating with it was targeted by the provisional government. Unfortunately for Al Jazeera as a network, it was by now widely considered to be <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/media/2013/08/21/How-Al-Jazeera-skews-its-coverage-of-Egypt.html">sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood</a>, even though each news franchise maintains editorial independence from the others.</p>
<p>Al Jazeera Arabic and English had recently been joined by a dedicated Egyptian channel called Al Jazeera <em>Mubasher Misr</em> (Egypt Live). Many viewers and commentators believed it to be explicitly biased in favour of the Muslim Brotherhood. Several employees <a href="http://pr.aljazeera.com/post/54946993281/al-jazeera-condemns-egypt-media-intimidation">quit</a> in mid-2013 over editorial matters, and the channel abandoned its newly completed offices after other residents in the building made it clear they were not welcome.</p>
<p>Throughout late 2013 and into 2014, all foreign journalists in Egypt found themselves facing <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/02/19/why_egypt_hates_al_jazeera">growing threats to their safety</a>. And although Al Jazeera English’s coverage differs significantly from that of its Arabic counterparts, its staff faced specific threats.</p>
<p>Anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters on the streets of Cairo have used laser pointers to identify the channel’s hotel rooms. Under pressure from Egyptian authorities, the Associated Press asked Al Jazeera to refrain from rebroadcasting its live video feed from Tahrir Square.</p>
<p>The antagonism between Egypt and Al Jazeera came to a head on December 29 last year. Al Jazeera English’s Greste, bureau chief Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and producer Baher Mohamed were arrested. The timing was unfortunate for Greste in particular: he is the channel’s East Africa correspondent and was working in Egypt for only a short stint to cover holidays. </p>
<p>The three men joined two Al Jazeera Arabic employees in prison – Abdullah al-Shami and Mohamed Badr – although Badr has <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/video/middleeast/2014/02/egypt-court-acquits-al-jazeera-cameraman-20142292111554941.html">since been released</a>.</p>
<p>The trials continue and the fate of Greste and his colleagues is uncertain. But with big news stories certain to be coming out of Egypt for years to come, the relationship between Al Jazeera and the biggest nation in its backyard will only be tested further.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Bridges worked for Al Jazeera English from 2010-2011. He is the author of 18 days: Al Jazeera English and the Egyptian Revolution, published by Editia.</span></em></p>In 1999, then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak visited the small, dusty Al Jazeera compound in a suburb of the Qatari capital of Doha. “This matchbox! All this noise is coming out of this matchbox?” Mubarak…Scott Bridges, PhD candidate, Tutor, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192762013-10-29T03:41:02Z2013-10-29T03:41:02ZAmerica could be Al Jazeera’s final frontier<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33765/original/3p3y2m62-1382670832.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4416%2C3312&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Al Jazeera launched an US-only channel after failing to penetrate the market with its existing English-language offering.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/Paul Keller</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From its humble beginnings in the tiny middle eastern state of Qatar, Al Jazeera has been a genuine trailblazer, and can be partially credited with kickstarting a news and media revolution in the Arab world.</p>
<p>But the network’s attempts to expand to the US market have not been without difficulties. Opposition to Al Jazeera during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan came from the highest levels of government, and now Al Jazeera America must contend with a reputation that formed in the minds of many during those heated post-9/11 years.</p>
<p>Launched in 1996 from a ramshackle compound in the sleepy capital of Doha with then-Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani as a wealthy benefactor, the channel rapidly expanded its satellite footprint to most of the Middle East and established itself as a major voice in the Arab world.</p>
<p>The launch of Al Jazeera English (AJE) in 2006 marked its first non-Arabic news venture, and AJE was joined in 2011 by the lesser-known Al Jazeera Balkans. This year, Al Jazeera announced plans for UK and French channels (in addition to Al Jazeera Turk). (There has also been some <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/al-jazeera-sets-goal-of-aussie-sports-channel/story-fn91v9q3-1226744097004">media speculation</a> that Al Jazeera is considering an Australian sports channel.)</p>
<p>But its most anticipated franchise has been Al Jazeera America (AJAM).</p>
<p>Al Jazeera had previously worked hard to crack the US market, but with little success. After years of private and public lobbying (including a prominent <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/blog-post/2011/02/al-jazeera_on_us_television.html">“Demand Al Jazeera” campaign</a> in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011), and in the face of strident ideological and political opposition, AJE managed only a few small pockets of cable carriage across the USA.</p>
<p>Then in January this year, Al Jazeera <a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/al-jazeera-said-to-be-acquiring-current-tv/">dropped a bombshell</a>: it had purchased Al Gore’s Current TV channel for a reported $US500 million, instantly gaining access to an estimated 50-60 million homes.</p>
<p>Within hours of the announcement of the Al Jazeera deal, Time Warner Cable (reaching around 10 million homes) removed Current from its line-up, denying <a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/time-warner-cable-says-it-will-keep-open-mind-on-reinstating-al-jazeera/">the charge that its decision was politically motivated</a>. </p>
<p>(After evaluating “whether it makes sense” to carry AJAM, Time Warner <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/business/media/time-warner-cable-reaches-agreement-to-distribute-al-jazeera-america.html">last week decided to re-add the channel</a>.)</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33766/original/7mrg3znd-1382671329.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33766/original/7mrg3znd-1382671329.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33766/original/7mrg3znd-1382671329.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33766/original/7mrg3znd-1382671329.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33766/original/7mrg3znd-1382671329.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33766/original/7mrg3znd-1382671329.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33766/original/7mrg3znd-1382671329.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not so welcome after all: protestors in Golden, Colorado protest the arrival of an Al Jazeera news crew.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/Andrew J Ferguson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Americans were quick to parody their latest news channel on Twitter with the hashtag #AlJazeeraAmericaTVShows eliciting suggestions like “Sharia Law & Order”, “I Dream of Jihad”, “How I Met Your Camel”, and “Arresting Development”.</p>
<p>Al Jazeera America took shape with amazing speed – the Current TV deal was announced in January and AJAM went to air only seven months later. </p>
<p>In that time, dozens of AJE staff flown in from Doha, along with local executives, built a newsroom/studio in New York City, opened multiple new bureaus around the country, recruited hundreds of staff (<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/02/18/al-jazeera-washington-new-york-expansion/1927585/">from many thousands of applications</a>), and fleshed out a 24-hour broadcast schedule of news bulletins and special programs.</p>
<p>Throughout this process there was public discussion and fierce internal debate over many editorial issues, but one in particular: how American should the American arm of Al Jazeera be? </p>
<p>Marwan Bishara, host of AJE’s <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/empire/">Empire</a> and the channel’s senior political analyst, <a href="http://ggsidedocs.blogspot.com.br/2013/07/email-from-marwan-bishara-to-aj.html">emailed</a> network leadership in July, expressing concern about attempts to build a “firewall” between the new channel and its sisters in Doha. This email along with other reporting at the time suggested that AJAM was engaged in a delicate balancing act between embracing the Al Jazeera legacy and distancing itself to counter lingering sentiments about the network’s “anti-Americanism”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33769/original/pj4dptbc-1382671612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33769/original/pj4dptbc-1382671612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33769/original/pj4dptbc-1382671612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33769/original/pj4dptbc-1382671612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33769/original/pj4dptbc-1382671612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33769/original/pj4dptbc-1382671612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33769/original/pj4dptbc-1382671612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Couldn’t be more American: an Al Jazeera reporter gets ready to broadcast from the Buffalo Rose Saloon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/Andrew J Ferguson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After several delays to the ambitious launch date, AJAM went to air on August 20. In reviewing the new channel’s first hours, Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-0820-al-jazeera-goes-all-american-20130820,0,6067574.story">declared</a> that AJAM had “chutzpah” for opening with a swipe at US news culture before setting out its mission as an attempt to “out-America everyone”.</p>
<p>At a stylistic level, she also mentioned AJAM’s “muted color scheme, unexciting camera work and sophomoric graphics” in contrast to established US cable news outlets with their audiovisual gimmicks and outsize production. In some ways these design elements which seek to foreground content over production, borrowed as they are from AJE, may be more central to the channel’s success or failure than editorial considerations.</p>
<p>Only two months after launch it’s impossible to draw any conclusions about AJAM’s prospects. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/al-jazeera-america-launch-ratings_b193578">Launch ratings</a> were so low that in some cases they failed to meet the metrics’ “accuracy threshold” – but any new channel, even one without AJAM’s Islamic-sounding moniker, is going to struggle to gain viewers. Especially so in an increasingly fragmented media market and when new cable channels are assigned numbers at the wrong end of the dial where chance discovery is unlikely.</p>
<p>The original Al Jazeera channel has been phenomenally successful in the Middle East, and AJE has built on that success around the world. Al Jazeera America is the network’s attempt to crack the last major withholding Western market, and it may turn out to be the toughest challenge it has taken on.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://editia.com/books/18-days-al-jazeera-english-and-the-egyptian-revolution/">18 days: Al Jazeera English and the Egyptian Revolution</a> by Scott Bridges is out through Editia on November 30th.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Bridges worked for Al Jazeera English from 2010-2011. He is the author of 18 days: Al Jazeera English and the Egyptian Revolution, to be published by Editia.</span></em></p>From its humble beginnings in the tiny middle eastern state of Qatar, Al Jazeera has been a genuine trailblazer, and can be partially credited with kickstarting a news and media revolution in the Arab…Scott Bridges, Lecturer, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.