Targeting the Witness Fatima Al-Smadi
Introduction Al Jazeera has seen several challenges, provocations and obstacles throughout its 25-year history. This chapter will examine those barriers and difficulties, chief among them the continuous pressure and unre- lenting campaigns to undermine its credibility and question its editorial standards on many sensitive issues. This chapter will provide a detailed account of the methods and tools used against Al Jazeera by different parties in different countries. The supporting facts and figures will be presented and analysed according to the following three criteria: - Attempts to ban or hinder its work, including disrupting cover- age, closing down bureaus, jamming broadcast signals, denying work permits, terminating broadcast licenses, and arresting its journalists. - Dangerous and hostile practices, such as bombing the Network’s offices, killing its correspondents, and threats made by Arab and inter- national figures including Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi and former U.S. president George W. Bush. - Widespread efforts to distort or damage Al Jazeera’s public image and credibility by falsely linking the network to terrorism, and alleging that it’s the mouthpiece of terrorists. As well as targeting its editorial independence by linking it to Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, the CIA, the Muslim Brotherhood and others. This chapter assumes it is because of the considerable influence Al Jazeera has had throughout the years, which has exposed it to the various forms of attacks, distortions, and threats. Given the fact that such an influence contributed to the forming a new awareness that com-
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