DOHA, Qatar-The pressroom
at the Sheraton is buzzing and frantic
with reporters from every form of media
and most countries, bustling to get the
latest World Trade Organization story out.
Upon entering the large room, if you can
avoid looking at the computer screens where
most eyes are glued, you'll see a multitude
of journalists at work, often culturally
distinguishable by their dress. Although
they are all covering the same stories
at the ministerial meeting: the fate of
a new round of talks, such as agricultural
subsidies, and of course intellectual property
rights, Hassan Ibrahim, the Senior Program
Producer at the Al-Jazeera television station,
feels that it is nearly impossible to eradicate
cultural, religious and regional influences
in the reporting news.
"Anyone
who thinks that this station is free of cultural implication
is in denial," he said. "Al-Jazeera is objective,
not neutral. We add color."
Al Jazeera literally means 'island' in Arabic,
he explained, but the larger sense of the word
means the Arab Peninsula-as a platform not a group
of nation states. The differences between Western
and Arab editorial news coverage can vary widely,
but when it comes to hard news, the news coverage
is very similar.
"WTO coverage wouldn't differ much," Ibrahim
said. Al Jazeera will, however, have more a focus
on the developing countries' issues, "because
we come form that world," Ibrahim said.
Al-Jazeera's Ibrhaim
believes that his station's coverage on the Iraqi
and Kuwaiti conflict, or
the presence of American bases in the Gulf, reflect
the Arab point of view. "Kuwait has accused
us of being stooges for Sadadm," he said. "The
harshness of the Iraqi dictatorship not withstanding,
we tend to be fairly objective and try to cover
each side."
Based from an Arab
perspective, we sympathize with the Palestinians
in the Israeli conflict,
he said. "That's the beauty of it," he
said. "You have your own cultural identification,
but you report the other side and that's what makes
Al-Jazeera accessible."
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