in its corporate institution and its reporters” (1) , as well as on developing internal mechanisms to verify fake news (2) . At the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2011, the security services of former Yemeni President, Ali Abdullah Saleh leaked a video show- ing prisoners being brutally tortured in the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison. The video was said to have been taken at the Central Prison in Sana’a to undermine Al Jazeera’s credibility. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Sa- na’a at the time Ahmed Ashalfi explains, “A security personnel working with the intelligence service handed over the clip to a photographer with whom we had relations. Our team in Sana’a watched the clip. What we noticed was that the video had been well prepared. As for the place where the torture was said to have taken place, we were told that it was the Central Prison in Sana’a. Afterwards, we approached someone and asked him, ‘Is it truly the said place?’ He confirmed, saying, ‘Yes, I vis- ited this place.’ The voice sounded Yemeni and it was made as though it was a prison in Sana’a”. Minutes after broadcasting the fabricated tape, Al Jazeera applied the instructions provided in the professional code of conduct, admitting to its audience that an error occurred and apol- ogising for it. After that, it started to work on unprecedented modern mechanisms for verification that include image technology. (3) During the Arab Spring uprisings, specifically between 2011 and 2015, Al Jazeera encountered a new challenge whereby the majority of official sources declined to speak openly or appear on its screen. Given that one of the parties to the story is absent, which violates the principle of objectivity and balance stipulated by the Code of Profes- sional Conduct, the way out of this dilemma took different forms. The
(1) Abu Hilala, personal interview, Ibid.
(2) In 2019, Al Jazeera created a team called “Sanad” (support) to verify videos, photos and in- formation coming from digital platforms. This team supports the main news bulletin of the Ar- abic channel, Al Jazeera Net and Al Jazeera Mubasher websites, and other news programmes, including Nasratkom and “ Al Jazeera Hatha as-Sabah . (3) Ashalfi said, “Verifying the authenticity of videos was not available in 2011. Al Jazeera’s attempts to resolve this dilemma culminated in the establishment of verification processes through special applications and subject-matter monitors who kept a watchful eye on the con- tent of different platforms in about 10 Arab countries using an application called “Kalim”, personal interview with Amr Elkazaz, December 2020.
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