It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
(visit the link for the full news article)
Many employees at Al-Jazeera news channel are resigning over the Qatari-based news network's biased coverage of events taking place in the Middle East.
Al Jazeera Arabic's Beirut correspondent, Ali Hashem, resigned on Tuesday after leaked emails revealed his frustrations over the news channel's coverage of Syria, according to a source within the television network.
Hashem's resignation comes weeks after pro-Assad hackers leaked emails that revealed the dismay among Al Jazeera's staff over its “biased and unprofessional” coverage of the Syrian uprising.
“Hashem's misgivings are clear and well-known, and are no longer a secret to anyone," the source, wishing to remain anonymous, said.
"You can check the emails he sent to his colleague, Rula Ibrahim, to know his position which changed after the station refused to show photos he had taken of armed fighters clashing with the Syrian Army in Wadi Khaled. Instead [Al Jazeera] lambasted him as a shabeeh (implying a regime loyalist).”
The source also said that Hashem reported his dismay to several officials in the station, not just to his colleague, Ibrahim.
Complicating matters for Hashem was Al Jazeera's refusal to cover the uprising in Bahrain.
“[In Bahrain], we were seeing pictures of a people being butchered by the 'Gulf's oppression machine', and for Al Jazeera, silence was the name of the game,” the source added.
According to the source, Hashem was not the only Al Jazeera reporter to express his frustration over its coverage. Staff members in Al-Jazeera's offices in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Bahrain also voiced similar opinions.
The source explained that most reporters at Al Jazeera are professionals and come from prestigious schools of journalism where such biased coverage is unacceptable and particularly since several field reporters are “seeing the truth” themselves.
Al Jazeera Arabic's Beirut correspondent, Ali Hashem, resigned on Tuesday after leaked emails revealed his frustrations over the news channel's coverage of Syria. The network’s server had been hacked by the self-styled Syrian Electronic Army, revealing discontent among some of the network’s employees within the Arab news channel over its coverage of Syria.
The major find in the hack was an email exchange between anchorwoman Rula Ibrahim and Hashem. In conversation with her colleague in Beirut, Ibrahim says she had "turned against the revolution" in Syria after realising the protests would "destroy the country and lead to a civil war". She went on to deride the opposition Free Syrian Army as "a branch of al-Qaeda".
While Al-Jazeera has remained tight lipped on the breach of its server, the state broadcaster in Syria lauded the revelations in the email as proof of the subversive role foreign proxies were playing in sowing chaos in the country. When Hashem spoke to Daily Maverick on Sunday evening, he blamed his departure from the Qatari-owned network on a politicisation of the news. "We are in the era of a politicisation of media, that’s one of the reasons why I left Al-Jazeera," he said. "Today the owners want their agenda to be clear on the news diary, they are paying money to make use of their media outlet, I can't impose on them to abide by media ethics, the best thing if you don't like it leave it and so I did.
Al Jazeera Arabic’s Beirut correspondent, Ali Hashem, resigned on Tuesday after leaked emails revealed his frustrations over the news channel’s coverage of Syria, according to a source within the television network.
Hashem’s resignation comes weeks after pro-Assad hackers leaked emails that revealed the dismay among Al Jazeera’s staff over its “biased and unprofessional” coverage of the Syrian uprising.
“Hashem’s misgivings are clear and well-known, and are no longer a secret to anyone,” the source, wishing to remain anonymous, said.
“You can check the emails he sent to his colleague, Rula Ibrahim, to know his position which changed after the station refused to show photos he had taken of armed fighters clashing with the Syrian Army in Wadi Khaled. Instead [Al Jazeera] lambasted him as a shabeeh (implying a regime loyalist).”
Originally posted by nusnus
Wow, can you believe Al-Jazeera goes to lengths to fuel a civil war in Syria? oh wait...isn't that what the rest of the world are doing?
I've friends in Homs, we spoke to them a week ago under very strenuous conditions because the phones were cut off and the internet was barely working. But they had internet so we chatted a bit.
Here's a newsflash for you: What they told us, doesn't match ANYTHING of what we see on TV or the news.
According to the Sunni friend who's married to an Alawite lady, (if you've been following the conflict you'd know these two are supposed to be fighting each other now), there are armed opposition groups who do nothing but target each other's sects now. The fighting between the Sunni and the Alawi opposition was so bad, that the Army had to come into Homs to quell the fighting. Once the tanks came in, the fighting subsided a bit.
What does that tell you about whats going on in there? Three things: 1. the government isn't doing all the killings. 2. the government is trying to control the ongoing clashes between the sects by putting their weight on it. 3. This is now a civil war, and not just the government randomly killing people. But if you look at all the news being covered in the area, it looks like the government is doing all the killing and the opposition is fighting the government. No such unity exists. In fact, arming the opposition now is probably the worst idea ever.edit on 22-3-2012 by nusnus because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by Swills
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul
So because RT reported on this it must be fake or nonsense?
Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul
Originally posted by Swills
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul
So because RT reported on this it must be fake or nonsense?
Where did I say that?
It is typical of ATS pundits to put words into people's mouths.
Try using some critical thinking for a change.
RT accusing another news service of fakery?
Oh the irony!!
Originally posted by Swills
Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul
Originally posted by Swills
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul
So because RT reported on this it must be fake or nonsense?
Where did I say that?
It is typical of ATS pundits to put words into people's mouths.
Try using some critical thinking for a change.
RT accusing another news service of fakery?
Oh the irony!!
Right there, you say RT is accusing another news service of fakery.
So let me apply your advice and use some critical thinking! You accuse RT of faking news stories or perhaps you are accusing RT of faking this news story?
Either way, I wanted to show that RT isn't faking this story
Thanks for the advice!
RT IS well known as a source of bogus news - and it is ironic that they are highlighting another news service that has screwed up. that is Irony.
Good of you to ask the question rather than leaping to a conclusion and you did previously - I see you have taken the lesson already.
So because RT reported on this it must be fake or nonsense?
congratulations - you did that. You could have done it as well or better without trying to put words into my mouth that I never said.