David Frost joins Al-Jazeera

Who can ever forget Al-Jazeera’s scoop on Osama Bin Ladin’s message post 9-11? It was the envy of other international broadcasters, catapulting the small Qatar-based television group into the mainstream. American critics attacked the group and said it was Al-Qaida’s mouthpiece. Curiously, Arabs themselves were not sure what to think of it as it galloped to fame with its hard-hitting, trendsetting reportage and bold enough for Arab standards to give air-time even to Israeli officials. They said, "CIA". With both sides calling it names, that can only mean its doing something right.

It is now poised to debut into international 24-hour journalism threatening to rival CNN and BBC. It was announced that David Frost, the veteran BBC television host will join the group. Frost is known as the "the only person to have interviewed the last seven presidents of the United States and the last six prime ministers of the United Kingdom."

On a personal aside, Frost wanted to interview Cory Aquino in 1986 but he did not even get the courtesy of a reply. I was burning the wires then to mediate for a rare opportunity to publicize the Philippines’ cause. I am not blaming Cory. She (or her advisers) probably got cold feet and refused a one-on-one interview with the top world-class talk host. I hear Riz Khan once the major CNN talent in Atlanta has also been recruited and may be based in Washington. (My daughter, Veronica has accepted to be the principal anchor in Kuala Lumpur but let someone else write about that!).

In an interview, Frost said most of the television he has done over the years has been aimed at British and American audiences. "This time, while our target is still Britain and America, the excitement is that it is also the six billion other inhabitants of the globe," Frost would operate from the channel’s London broadcast centre, but details of his onscreen work would only be revealed "closer to launch".

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But more exciting about the new 24-hour English-language news by the world’s top anchors is the fact that Al-Jazeera is not Western owned or Western oriented. Journalists, of whatever nationality, have long been in search of more independent and transparent TV. With more than 30 bureaus and dozens of correspondents covering the four corners of the world Aljazeera might just make it. Certainly it comes at the right time. Aljazeera’s cor-respondents opened a window for the world on the millennium’s first two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. By sheer gall it brought out the war’s devastating impact on the lives of ordinary people. Its motto, organizers claim, is ‘The right to speak up".

"Truth will be the force that will drive us to raise thorny issues, to seize every opportunity for exclusive reporting, to take hold of unforgettable moments in history and to rekindle the willpower within every human being who strives for truth," Al-jazeera said. Isn’t it ironic that such groundbreaking audacity in journalism should happen in the Arab world, an enclave of closed societies?

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Neither is it so surprising that President Bush should want to bomb its offices in Qatar., even if the country is a US ally. The threat of men and women dedicated to ‘the free word’ is certainly more dangerous than evil deeds. When Al-Jazeera first broadcast across the Arab world, the Americans hailed it as a symbol of freedom in the Middle East. The New York Times’ Tom Friedman said it was a beacon of freedom while US officials described the station’s broadcasts as proof Arabs wanted free speech.

Arabs wanted to see and hear truths that had been denied them by their own leaders. But when the same Al-Jazeera began broadcasting Bin Laden’s words and the happenings in Guantanomo Bay, Friedman and the State Department lost their enthusiasm. Iraq’s newly elected government proved its ‘democratic’ credentials by throwing Al-Jazeera out of the country just as Saddam had threatened to do in early 2003.

Another crisis confronts the ‘free voice in the Middle East ‘with a leaked memo that President Bush wanted to bomb its offices. By the way Qatar is a US ally so the country is not the target, free journalism is. Ten lines in the memo reports a conversation between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair regarding Al Jazeera.

London ‘s Daily Mirror, which ran the story claimed the Prime Minister talked Bush out of the plan. As they attempted damage control last week, government officials said Bush’s comments were just a joke. "It was preposterous to suggest Bush would countenance such an idea," the officials said. The White House described the allegations as ‘unfathomable’ although according to those who have seen the memo ‘there is no question Bush was serious.’

But joke or not , the memo reveals Bush’s profound obsession with Al Jazeera, an obsession as one article said ‘stretches from Washington to the tin huts behind the razor wire in Guantanamo Bay." Why is the most powerful man in the world worried about a 24-hour news organization?

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My e-mail is [email protected]