Al Jazeera launches Iraq site in English
Published: 25 Mar 2003 08:38 GMT
Arab news agency Al Jazeera launched an English-language Web site on Monday, providing a starkly different view on the war with Iraq than that offered by many Western media outlets.
Featuring headlines such as "US 'precision' bomb destroys civilian bus", "Misinformation Basra" and "Hunger turns Iraqi civilians against US 'saviours'", the site billed itself as "objective and balanced global news coverage and analysis".
The site, which is devoted to news on the conflict in Iraq, joins a chorus of voices emanating from the war zone, including individual Web logs as well as the many TV broadcasts, radio reports, newspaper dispatches and other media reports. However, the Al Jazeera site was accessible only intermittently on Monday.
Although much of the difference between Al Jazeera's reports and those of other news outlets had to do with the tone and choice of stories, in some cases the site offered facts at odds with those reported by Western media outlets. For example, it was widely reported in the Western press that coalition bombs appeared to have hit a bus carrying Syrian civilians in Iraq near the Syrian border. However, in one article, Al Jazeera says: "A missile is said to have strayed and hit a bus in Syria, killing five innocent passengers."
Al Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, has been billed as the CNN of the Middle East, but has also come under criticism, first for broadcasting unedited speeches of Osama Bin Laden and more recently for broadcasting video of US soldiers said to be held prisoner by Iraq.
US military leaders have criticised Iraq for showing videotapes of US prisoners and some have extended that criticism to Al Jazeera. "Needless to say, television networks that carry such pictures are, I would say, doing something that's unfortunate," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday in an interview on CNN's Late Edition.
A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the site.
Although some are likely to value a contrasting voice, the site is sure to be controversial, with features including "Coalition of the willing has become a joke" and "Has Israeli lobby influenced this war?"
Among its dispatches on Monday was what it described as an eyewitness account of the assault on Baghdad.
"Baghdad witnessed intense bombardment last night," begins the unbylined report, attributed simply to Al Jazeera. "Glass panes on windows and doors of the Al Jazeera Satellite TV office were shattered as shock waves ripped through the city. We still can smell gunpowder and smoke here."
The report goes on to give details on an attack on the Al Salam palace, which Al Jazeera said is used for hosting heads of state.
"We visited this palace along with the Iraqi Minister of Information and saw the damage," the report said. "It was completely empty and devoid of the alleged weapons of mass destruction."
The site also features a section devoted to "global reaction", which focuses entirely on opposition to the war, including various protests as well as antiwar sentiments expressed during Sunday's Academy Awards.
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