Al Jazeera staffer quits over Qatar influence

oab Saturday, 29 December 2012 11:59 AM - Saudi Arabia

Akhtam does not understand what is going on in syria based on al-jazeera coverage.

based on what he has said i also do not understand his reasons for leaving al-jazeera. i could not find one well established justification to convince me on his pov.

HE MUST HAVE BEEN ONE LOUSY CORRESPONDENT.

Romel Jayachandran Friday, 28 December 2012 11:16 AM - UAE & Qatar

Channels are a complicated business, filled with nuance, complications, and outright complexity; what works in one situation might be counterproductive in another ? and the very best channel objectives for one partner might short circuit a relationship with a different reseller.� As a result, an important job for a channel sales manager is to evaluate, adapt, and execute within a flexible relationship framework that allows multiple types of objectives and measurements.� In this environment, setting relevant channel objectives is a difficult business and actually gathering the data to measure success can be downright impossible.� However, that doesn?t mean you shouldn?t try! However public has right to unbiased and non-politically influenced news. I love Al-Jazeera.

Salem Thursday, 27 December 2012 8:15 PM - Saudi Arabia

Aktham Suliman or whatever his name lives in a different earth! Which news channel is independent? Seriously, any journalist whether working for Al Jazeerah, CNN, BBC, Fox or any other news channel knows well THAT HE IS SERVING HIS MASTERS!!

Let him start his own news channel....good riddance!!

Telcoguy Sunday, 30 December 2012 11:50 AM - UAE

@Qatar, coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in European media (BBC specially but also Spanish and French) is I would say more pro-Palestinian
In the US it is clearly pro-Israeli, but that has not prevented other outlets (like the much maligned in these forums Human Rights Watch) of criticizing and publicizing Israeli actions
It is undeniable that media owners try to use their outlets for their own benefit, Berlusconi would be a prime example, and so would be Murdoch, but you see also in the French and Spanish media but I seriously doubt that you are comparing situation in the Middle East with the situation in the West seriously
In the end the main problem in Western countries is that most people simply do not care enough, there is no need to resort to conspiracy theories. If you have any doubts about that I kindly invite you to watch some reality tv
@John true governments may not be able to coerce media, but can you say the same about their shareholders?

SA1 Sunday, 30 December 2012 10:53 AM - UAE

@Qatari --- critising the Queen? forget it.... they can't say a word about royal expenditures, even Harry Las Vegas incident (which raises serious moral issues) is published as laughing matter and closed.

But when it comes to our region, somehow the western world thinks that we should bad-mouth our monarch /rulers.

One just need to look at News International issue in UK and see how much influence the media has even on elections and nexus with the politicians. And guess what .....their politicians will be saved, and nothing will change.

Qatar Friday, 28 December 2012 9:49 PM - Qatar

Procan, I respect your point of view, but you can't deny that your media is biased on the international matters, if not local matters too. For example, the Palestinian case. You may be right about the level of freedom, but not about the unbiased journalism. The agenda is there but you might not see it. I wonder how can you critise the queen over there.

procan Friday, 28 December 2012 8:12 PM - canada

I am with John on this subject. The western mass media here the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation "CBC" a government funded media 1.1 Billion per year is attacking the the federal and Provincial governments daily including calling for over throw ! resignation of cabinet ministers and investigations of them. Now imagine Al Jazeera calling for the overthrow of any GCC State not going to happen eh. Or or criticizing the Royal Family for poor decisions make not going to happen.

Qatari Friday, 28 December 2012 12:28 PM - Qatar

John, same goes for us here, we think that your media is controlled by the Jewish minority. Those people have their own agenda, we have a saying in Arabic, if your house is made of glass don't throw stones at others.

John Harte Friday, 28 December 2012 11:17 AM - UK

You clearly know nothing about independent journalism, which is probably a reflection of where you live.

BBC and CNN do not serve the British and US governments; they can be criticised by these governments, but that's all these governments can do, they cannot shut them down or arrest arbitarily journalists. The opposite is true for news channels in the Arab world, which always need their governments' approval.