sociate such categorisation with stereotyped beliefs (1) . The importance of “stigma” in terms of the power it has as a classification first appears when an authority figure defines any idea, message, entity, or institu- tion with a certain label. Which then becomes very difficult to get rid of said stigma, and the resulting irreparable social, political, legal, and psychological damage. In this context, Al Jazeera has faced many attempts by the United States to “stigmatise” it with terrorism. A few days after the 9/11 attacks, the Pentagon signed a $16.7 million contract with the “Rendon Group” to monitor media outlets and study public opinion trends in the Middle East. Under that contract, Rendon tracked the locations and activities of Al Jazeera’s bureaus, correspondents, and others working with the network on the regional and global levels (2) . The objective of the con- tract involved providing detailed content analysis of the channel’s daily broadcasts. At the time, U.S. officials declared that Al Jazeera made a mistake by broadcasting Bin Laden’s tapes, accusing it of endangering the lives of American soldiers in Afghanistan. Along with the stigmati- sation attempts, the U.S. took aggressive actions that included attacks, arrests, and torture. The following are examples of such acts: - On November 13, 2001, prior to the U.S. taking full control of Ka- bul, its forces bombed Al Jazeera’s bureau in the Afghan capital. - In September 2003, the Spanish authorities arrested the channel’s Kabul bureau chief, Tayseer Allouni, during a family visit to Grana- da accusing him of terrorism; a charge he has always denied. After a trial he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. Although the U.S. did not have a direct role in his arrest; some American officials had portrayed him as a ‘terrorist’ in prior occasions. - On December 15, 2001, the Pakistani police arrested the channel’s cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, at the Chaman border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Later, he was handed over to the U.S. forces, who declared him an “enemy combatant”. (1) Bruce G. Link and Jo C. Phelan, “Conceptualizing Stigma”, Annual Review of Sociology , Vol. 27, (2001), pp 363-385. (2) Stephen Hedges, “Firm Helps U.S. Mold News Abroad”, Chicago Tribune, 13 November 2005: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2005-11-13-0511130330-story.html/ (ac- cessed 30/03/2021)
285
EN2.indd 285
20/02/2022 4:14 PM
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter