Al-Jazeera's worth
Published: Sat, Oct. 07, 2006 12:00AM
Modified Sat, Oct. 07, 2006 06:04AM
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closeI was astonished that the writer of the Sept. 30 People's Forum letter captioned "The right audience" grouped the Arabic news source Al-Jazeera with al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. This reminds me of the U.S. aerial attack that destroyed Al-Jazeera's office in Baghdad during the early days of the invasion of Iraq and killed one of its reporters. A similar attack was launched against its Kabul office in the Afghan war.
Al-Jazeera is a highly reputable news source in the Middle East. Its biases are no more pronounced than those of American networks. However, it is keen on bringing all opinions in any dialogue it broadcasts. Alberto Fernandez, the U.S. State Department's director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, is a frequent guest in its live dialogues.
It is doubtful that the letter-writer has ever listened to the Arabic broadcast of Al-Jazeera; those who do find a wider variety of opinion than on our own networks. What is more disturbing is that in a freedom-loving society such as ours, Al-Jazeera is finding difficulty getting government approval for broadcasting its English service.
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Nabil A. Rahman, Ph.D.
Raleigh
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