Ban Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera, an Arab television station which is extremely popular in Arab states is a epitome of bad journalism. It has recently aired a video of a kidnapped British engineer begging Tony Blair to heed to the kidnappers demands http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3699998.stm. Such kidnappings are sensitive issues and considering the recent beheadings it was morally wrong to show such videos. Al Jazeera also repeatedly aired videos of Osama Bin Laden threatning US which I feel is in such bad taste. It spreads the message of hate... Considering its popularity it is seriously a road block in improving the western-muslim relations. With power comes responsibility.... I believe in free media, but here I think i'll make an exception. Every large media has messed up has messed up atleast once.... But this consistent deliberate jaundiced reporting has to stop.
posted by Sunil @ 1:53 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Its internet edition should be banned. Other reputed medias, CNV, BBC..should have a significant presense in Arab states and they should gain the respect of the arab world by unbiased reporting
As mentioned earlier in the discussion this is a world of free media and we should appreciate that there is some one who is daring to show the truth in black and white. Also the BBC and CNN dont show completely unbiased news. For CNN, anything small against USA is equivalent to an entire world against them, and same is the case with the BBC.
Since the reach of these two channels is wide, the maximum population of the world sees the news that are aired by them. This will definitely influence the view of the majority of the population, bending it towards them.
In this scenario, there should be someone who will expose the other side of the coin to the world.
By this I am not justifying the actions of the Al-Jazeera, but this is very necessary to balance the equation.
Personally I think its user discretion. You watch what you want. Read what you want. If BBC is showing you Al-jazeera pics dont' watch it. Its basically the same issue as whether p*rn should be available as easily as it is. But then its left upto user discretion as to whether they should be viewing it or not. You can't really ban sites like that cause every individual has a right to view that stuff. That's what we call freedom isn't it?
Apart from that I guess every sensible individual is capable enough to know how much importance they should be giving to such things. In a way its good, it sort of doesn't affect you after some time. You kinda get immune to seeing killings and stuff. But then that's just my point of view.
I am so for freedom of expression but there has to be an option for the people to choose from. If the arab world dosent have an option as far as media is concerned, then their opinions will get skewed after following programs on Al Jazeera. Let me explain it this way.. When I came to US initially I could not relate to a lot of the news posted on NyTimes, Washington Post... This was because most of the news was provincial like NFL or debates on local issues(I was bought up with a daily dose of cricket news and Indian politics). So I would rely on the internet edition of Times of India. I believe many arabs cant relate to news posted on BBC or CNN so they opt for Al Jazeera. BBC, CNN should have local editions... also arabs should be encouraged to develop better local alternatives to Al Jazeera.
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