The Washington Post has featured a story titled “Al Jazeera Faces Criticism In Egypt Over Its Coverage Of Muslim Brotherhood” which looks at criticism of Al Jazeera over its relationship to the Muslim Brotherhood. The story begins:
January 6, 2014 Ever since the military’s ouster of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in July, Al Jazeera, the pioneering Arab-language news broadcaster, hasn’t shrunk from calling his removal something the American government won’t: a coup.
That highly loaded declaration, as well as its relentless and, critics say, sympathetic coverage of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood movement, has turned Al Jazeera into a virtual enemy of the state in Egypt. Its journalists have been harassed and banned, and five remain in custody, including three who were arrested last week for allegedly harming national security. Al Jazeera’s local TV studios in Egypt, though not its transnational satellite transmissions, have been shut down, forcing its few remaining Egyptian journalists to work from makeshift facilities, such as a Cairo hotel room.
Photos of the day Snow and ice storms, Epiphany, Vladimir Putin plays hockey, Japanese whaling and more. Friday’s Photos of the day The network’s pariah status in Egypt represents an abrupt reversal of fortune for a news organization often lionized for challenging the media monopoly of authoritarian governments throughout the Middle East. Only three years ago, Al Jazeera was celebrated for its role in the downfall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Crowds in Cairo’s Tahrir Square watched its coverage of Egypt’s Arab Spring uprisings on giant TV screens. ‘Al Jazeera was a hero in Egypt,’ said Mohammed el-Nawawy, a professor at Queens University of Charlotte who has studied the network.
Since then, Egyptian authorities and Al Jazeera’s critics — including some of the network’s own employees — have accused it of being a mouthpiece for Morsi and the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
‘Al Jazeera has given a lot support to the Muslim Brotherhood. There’s no doubt about that,’ said Hugh Miles, a freelance journalist in Cairo and the author of ‘Al-Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That Is Challenging the West.’
Read the rest here.
The GMBDW reported earlier this week that Egypt had summoned the Qatari Ambassador to the Egyptian foreign ministry in order to object to Qatari criticism of the crackdown on the Brotherhood as well as to Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera’s coverage of events.
The GMBDW reported in September 2013 on the ongoing conflicts regarding Al-Jazeera’s coverage of events in Egypt. In July 2012, the GMBDW had reported on the resignation of the 22 members of the Al-Jazeera Egyptian bureau in protest over what they say were instructions from the management to “favor the Muslim Brotherhood.” In 2009, Egyptian authorities were reported to be in the process of revoking Al-Jazeera’s license to broadcast and that the network was planning to close its bureau office in Cairo.
Leaked US State Department cables indicate that Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar and funded by the Qatari government, operates as an arm of Qatari foreign policy which has recently been strongly supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood and the recently deposed Mohamed Morsi. Our predecessor publication extensively covered the role of Qatar as a supporter of the Global Muslim Brotherhood and was the first to report on the strong ties to the Global Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas of Wadah Khanfar, the former Director-General of Al-Jazeera who resigned in 2011 after serving for eight years.
In 2009, the Jerusalem Post ran an article that explored the role of the Muslim Brotherhood at Al Jazeera.