9 ms·

As Egypt Erupts, Al Jazeera Offers Its News for Free to Other Networks

151 points by solipsist 16y ago

burgerbrain 16y ago
Has there been any talk about how Al Jazeera is getting their footage out of Egypt? I'm assuming they're probably using their own communication satellites, has the Egyptian government made any public comments about what they think of Al Jazeera reporting on this?
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  >has the Egyptian government made any public comments about what they think of Al Jazeera reporting on this? At some time around 3PM UK time yesterday (bang in the middle of the rioting), they suddenly broke off the commentary from their studio in downtown cairo, saying "The police have entered the building." There was a knock at the door, some shouting in arabic, a moment of silence then they carried on with the news, perhaps sounding slightly shaken. Take from that what you will. EDIT: Also at one point they had a split screen with their live footage of a burning upturned APC on one side, and the feed from egyptian state TV showing a calm and placid view of the skyline on the other. They then spent the next few minutes roundly mocking the regime for living in a dream world. It was pretty funny.
  - yread 16y ago
    At that moment the police just wanted them not to stand on the balcony - since the curfew was about to start. So they stayed with the camera inside for like 15 minutes and then moved out on the balcony again.
_delirium 16y ago
I'm curious why Al Jazeera has such a negative reputation in the US. Is their Arabic-language reporting different? I don't regularly follow them, but their English-language reporting seems to be professional and not greatly slanted whenever I've run across it. It's actually less obviously partisan, from what I can tell, than a lot of typical Western news sources (think MSNBC v. Fox News), even well-respected ones (think Libération versus Le Figaro), possibly due to their attempt to appeal to a fairly broad pan-Arab-world audience.
- neilk 16y ago
  When America was invading Iraq in 2003, al-Jazeera was called out by Bush and Rumsfeld as the network of terrorist propaganda. This was partially because it was the network of choice for Osama bin Laden to release his taped announcements, but also because they tended to report from a point of view that wasn't in line with American wishes. If you are interested in this topic check out The Control Room, a 2003 documentary about al-Jazeera and the Western media in the runup to war. The best part is when they're all holed up together in a military briefing center in the middle of nowhere; tension is high and all the differing agendas are laid bare. It seems to be available in full on Google Video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3977004463731346350 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3977004463731346350
  - vimalg2 16y ago
    Just done watching it since i found a copy earlier today. Makes the US military's spin sound like Goebbels all over again.
    - neilk 16y ago
      I didn't get that sense at all. The US military are great at spin, but what's really amazing is the eagerness of the US media to be spun.
      - jacquesm 16y ago
        The secret word is 'access'.
    - cosmicray 16y ago
      Part of that the result of the Vietnam Conflict. The US military did not control the spin of the daily war news, and suffered mightily as a result.
- aaronblohowiak 16y ago
  Some people believe that Al Jazeera is Anti-Israel, which would make it out of alignment with US foreign policy.
vimalg2 16y ago
The live coverage is pretty good. I've quit watching TV for ages. But oddly, i'm hooked on their coverage for the past 48 hrs, via the live webcast. It reminds me of the good old BBC (before i found out they practiced censorship)
- tarkin2 16y ago
  Out of interest, can you link to sources detailing the censorship?
  - JonnieCache 16y ago
    The BBC charter, the documents that detail the BBC's legal obligations as recipients of the license fee, includes extensive rules on political impartiality in broadcasting. http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-impartiality-introduction http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/gui... However, these are simply the BBC's own internal guidelines which complement the legal codes of "due impartiality" which apply to all television in the united kingdom http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/impartiality/ http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-code... Observers sometimes construe this as state censorship. In fact it is only applied in response to mass citizen complaint against blatantly objectionable programming, and in to my memory works more often against the government than in their favor.
- hcho 16y ago
  And not without a reason, they have a sizeable amount of ex BBC people in their staff.
  - borism 16y ago
    Heck, they have Sir David Frost himself!
- bane 16y ago
  It's like watching the kind of news I remember when I was a kid, not the present information free, opinion laden broadcast we get in the States these days. It's actual journalism. Just watching now I heard "he can't confirm this yet, but this is what we heard" which is something so very rare to hear these days. The American media will often report even the vaguest rumors without the necessary caveats. Fox will even run questions along the bottom "outrageous thing is true?"
shareme 16y ago
A question from an American.. I am attempting to understand the political landscape in Egypt. Two questions: 1. would it be correct to say that there are in fact two MB orgs, one that is non violent and slightly good and one MB org that is violent and not good? 2. Given the almost outright banning of opposition political parties in Egypt what political parties is the military involved with?
- riffer 16y ago
  http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/0128_egypt_riedel.aspx http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/0128_egypt_riedel.asp...
- _delirium 16y ago
  As far as I know, all current prominent leaders in the Egyptian MB support nonviolence, which the group officially adopted in the 1970s--- that led to the more radical factions leaving to form groups like Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Group. There's a range of politics within that, though, from religious-conservative types who'd like a more traditionalist Islamic republic, to almost-secular moderates who focus on the movement's social institutions and see Islam's role as mainly spiritual/charitable. Since it's been operating semi-underground, I'm not sure anyone is 100% sure which leaders would end up dominating if it were to operate in the open and have some degree of power. The hope among western analysts is that its strength over the past ~20 years in universities and social services means that it's picked up enough educated moderates so that they would dominate a legalized version of the organization.
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  I am not in a position right now to cite my sources but FWIW I heard a spokesperson from the muslim brotherhood on the phone to al jazeeera a few hours ago saying "we do not intend to contest any presidential election." They have basically been saying that the events are not in any way caused or prompted by them, but they support them fully as participants.
jacquesm 16y ago
for some more perspective on this, yesterdays thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2152622 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2152622
sambeau 16y ago
"reversing the North to South flow of information"
j_baker 16y ago
Aside from the political and journalistic implications, I think it's interesting that they're making this available under a Creative Commons license. Are there any other major news organizations that CC license any of their content? I'd be shocked if any of the major US news organizations use the CC licenses in any meaningful way.
- cma 16y ago
  Democracy Now! does: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/10849 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/10849 But they fail the "major" qualification.

151 points by solipsist 16y ago

Has there been any talk about how Al Jazeera is getting their footage out of Egypt? I'm assuming they're probably using their own communication satellites, has the Egyptian government made any public comments about what they think of Al Jazeera reporting on this?

JonnieCache 16y ago
>has the Egyptian government made any public comments about what they think of Al Jazeera reporting on this? At some time around 3PM UK time yesterday (bang in the middle of the rioting), they suddenly broke off the commentary from their studio in downtown cairo, saying "The police have entered the building." There was a knock at the door, some shouting in arabic, a moment of silence then they carried on with the news, perhaps sounding slightly shaken. Take from that what you will. EDIT: Also at one point they had a split screen with their live footage of a burning upturned APC on one side, and the feed from egyptian state TV showing a calm and placid view of the skyline on the other. They then spent the next few minutes roundly mocking the regime for living in a dream world. It was pretty funny.
- yread 16y ago
  At that moment the police just wanted them not to stand on the balcony - since the curfew was about to start. So they stayed with the camera inside for like 15 minutes and then moved out on the balcony again.

_delirium 16y ago

I'm curious why Al Jazeera has such a negative reputation in the US. Is their Arabic-language reporting different? I don't regularly follow them, but their English-language reporting seems to be professional and not greatly slanted whenever I've run across it. It's actually less obviously partisan, from what I can tell, than a lot of typical Western news sources (think MSNBC v. Fox News), even well-respected ones (think Libération versus Le Figaro), possibly due to their attempt to appeal to a fairly broad pan-Arab-world audience.

neilk 16y ago
When America was invading Iraq in 2003, al-Jazeera was called out by Bush and Rumsfeld as the network of terrorist propaganda. This was partially because it was the network of choice for Osama bin Laden to release his taped announcements, but also because they tended to report from a point of view that wasn't in line with American wishes. If you are interested in this topic check out The Control Room, a 2003 documentary about al-Jazeera and the Western media in the runup to war. The best part is when they're all holed up together in a military briefing center in the middle of nowhere; tension is high and all the differing agendas are laid bare. It seems to be available in full on Google Video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3977004463731346350 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3977004463731346350
- vimalg2 16y ago
  Just done watching it since i found a copy earlier today. Makes the US military's spin sound like Goebbels all over again.
  - neilk 16y ago
    I didn't get that sense at all. The US military are great at spin, but what's really amazing is the eagerness of the US media to be spun.
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      The secret word is 'access'.
  - cosmicray 16y ago
    Part of that the result of the Vietnam Conflict. The US military did not control the spin of the daily war news, and suffered mightily as a result.
aaronblohowiak 16y ago
Some people believe that Al Jazeera is Anti-Israel, which would make it out of alignment with US foreign policy.

vimalg2 16y ago

The live coverage is pretty good. I've quit watching TV for ages. But oddly, i'm hooked on their coverage for the past 48 hrs, via the live webcast. It reminds me of the good old BBC (before i found out they practiced censorship)

tarkin2 16y ago
Out of interest, can you link to sources detailing the censorship?
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  The BBC charter, the documents that detail the BBC's legal obligations as recipients of the license fee, includes extensive rules on political impartiality in broadcasting. http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-impartiality-introduction http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/gui... However, these are simply the BBC's own internal guidelines which complement the legal codes of "due impartiality" which apply to all television in the united kingdom http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/impartiality/ http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-code... Observers sometimes construe this as state censorship. In fact it is only applied in response to mass citizen complaint against blatantly objectionable programming, and in to my memory works more often against the government than in their favor.
hcho 16y ago
And not without a reason, they have a sizeable amount of ex BBC people in their staff.
- borism 16y ago
  Heck, they have Sir David Frost himself!
bane 16y ago
It's like watching the kind of news I remember when I was a kid, not the present information free, opinion laden broadcast we get in the States these days. It's actual journalism. Just watching now I heard "he can't confirm this yet, but this is what we heard" which is something so very rare to hear these days. The American media will often report even the vaguest rumors without the necessary caveats. Fox will even run questions along the bottom "outrageous thing is true?"

shareme 16y ago

A question from an American.. I am attempting to understand the political landscape in Egypt. Two questions: 1. would it be correct to say that there are in fact two MB orgs, one that is non violent and slightly good and one MB org that is violent and not good? 2. Given the almost outright banning of opposition political parties in Egypt what political parties is the military involved with?

riffer 16y ago
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/0128_egypt_riedel.aspx http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/0128_egypt_riedel.asp...
_delirium 16y ago
As far as I know, all current prominent leaders in the Egyptian MB support nonviolence, which the group officially adopted in the 1970s--- that led to the more radical factions leaving to form groups like Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Group. There's a range of politics within that, though, from religious-conservative types who'd like a more traditionalist Islamic republic, to almost-secular moderates who focus on the movement's social institutions and see Islam's role as mainly spiritual/charitable. Since it's been operating semi-underground, I'm not sure anyone is 100% sure which leaders would end up dominating if it were to operate in the open and have some degree of power. The hope among western analysts is that its strength over the past ~20 years in universities and social services means that it's picked up enough educated moderates so that they would dominate a legalized version of the organization.
JonnieCache 16y ago
I am not in a position right now to cite my sources but FWIW I heard a spokesperson from the muslim brotherhood on the phone to al jazeeera a few hours ago saying "we do not intend to contest any presidential election." They have basically been saying that the events are not in any way caused or prompted by them, but they support them fully as participants.

jacquesm 16y ago

for some more perspective on this, yesterdays thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2152622 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2152622

sambeau 16y ago

"reversing the North to South flow of information"

j_baker 16y ago

Aside from the political and journalistic implications, I think it's interesting that they're making this available under a Creative Commons license. Are there any other major news organizations that CC license any of their content? I'd be shocked if any of the major US news organizations use the CC licenses in any meaningful way.

cma 16y ago
Democracy Now! does: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/10849 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/10849 But they fail the "major" qualification.