tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8003335.post3577773863739810306..comments2024-03-29T14:16:22.204+02:00Comments on Egyptian Chronicles: Cablegate : Wadeh Khanfar resignsZeinobiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12290387395565291310noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8003335.post-89358811858326536872011-09-21T10:50:42.870+02:002011-09-21T10:50:42.870+02:00We should never forget the crucial role that Al Ja...We should never forget the crucial role that Al Jazeera played during the Egyptian revolution, providing us with an oasis of highly-professional news coverage at a time when all other networks were busily propagating lies and fabrications.<br /><br />Even before that, I used to describe Al Jazeera Arabic as the most courageous and most professional and intelligent of all international news networks, by far.<br /><br />But, especially after the uprising in Bahrain, when the Gulf monarchies began to panic and close ranks, something terrible happened to Al Jazeera. Many of their best programs, the ones that promoted debate between articulate proponents of opposite views, were cancelled. <br /><br />Some of their most widely-respected journalists resigned, including Hafez al-Miraghi, because they were censored. Al Jazeera applied a hypocritical, shameful double standard in its coverage of human and civil rights in Arab monarchies on the one hand, and of Arab republics on the other.<br /><br />Then, especially last spring, Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr was gradually becoming the Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood propaganda channel. No issue was covered or debated unless a Salafist or MB spokesman was promoted and given a disproportionate platform to provide his view, regardless of its relevance, or of how representative of public opinion. <br /><br />Finally, on May 27, Al Jazeera officially lost all credibility when it described the demonstrators that day as numbering "around 30,000", in line with the Muslim Brotherhood's lying propaganda. I was there that day, and the numbers could not have been less than 500,000, and were probably many more. Thank God Nawara Negm was there, covering it for TahrirTV, and she filmed the massive crowds that covered the Medan and beyond, from the top of a tall building.<br /><br />I totally oppose the closing of Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr on principle, but at the same time, for me and for many others who love Egypt and wholly embrace the values of the revolution, Al Jazeera's standards and performance were deeply saddening and frustrating.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the reasons for the network's decline will not go away with Khanfar's resignation. They are related to geopolitical shifts (including the closing of ranks between the Gulf monarchies, the US and Israel, and also of the media they control) compared to which Khanfar or his replacement are insignificant.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the revolution to liberate Arab people from the chains that are strangling them will have to struggle on in the face of numerous betrayals and a formidable enemy determined to defeat it.Alicenoreply@blogger.com