The Arabic broadcaster Al-Jazeera has suspended reporting from Iraq after Baghdad barred two of its correspondents from reporting there. "Al Jazeera regrets this surprising and sudden stand which is not justified," the broadcaster said in a statement.
The Iraqi Information Ministry barred Diyar al-Omari - an Iraqi - from reporting, and ordered correspondent Tayseer Alouni to leave the country.
Al-Jazeera said the Iraqis gave no reason for their decision.
The station interrupted a regular broadcast to make its announcement.
They cannot dictate to us who can and cannot work Editor-in-chief Ibrahim Helal Its correspondents will remain in Baghdad, editor-in-chief Ibrahim Helal told the Reuters news agency. "They cannot dictate to us who can and cannot work," Reuters quoted him as saying.
Al-Jazeera will continue to transmit images from its offices in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul, the station said.
There are eight correspondents working for the station in the country.
The Qatar-based satellite broadcaster is one of the most influential voices in the Arab world. It claims to have 35 million viewers.
The US and UK have charged that the station is biased and have criticised it for airing pictures of dead Western troops.
Al-Jazeera's new English-language website has suffered a number of denial-of-service attacks since the war began, in which hackers flooded the site with junk messages.
Visitors were also redirected to web pages with pro-US messages or pornography.
Iraq expelled correspondents for the US cable news broadcaster CNN last week.
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/2911935.stm
Ah, sweet irony.
The Iraqi leadership slime have thrown out their best agitprop and disinformation mouthpiece.
Now how will Saddam's henchmen recruit cannon fodder and proclaim their imminent victory?
Iraq didn't want them to film the people celebrating after they get their butts beat. Not that Al Jazeera would film anything that might be construed as pro-American...
When Saddam lets the BBC continue, and tosses out Al Jazeera, you know who the sympathizers are.
I guess the everyday Iraqi is jes gonna have to come here if they wanna get the truth.
The other reason could the Iraqi's are planning an NBC type attack on Bagdad. Hopefully not ... prayers for safety.
One of the top bbg stories yesterday was that AJ would not have survived without 9-11. They cannot pay the fixed costs of broadcasting without CNN, MSNBC, etc paying for the footage that they provide. They were bragging about how they can just about pay salaries now...
The sad thing is that by watching/demanding coverage of this war we are funding the enemy.
They will go BK without this war. None of the Arab governments likes them (aside from the Saudis and that is a tender relationship as they have been heavy critics)...
Too bad </sarcasm>
"The sad thing is that by watching/demanding coverage of this war we are funding the enemy. "
I wonder if we'll see commercials now that say by watching the news you are funding terrorism?
It's gettin' close to the point when the video will speak for itself, and the Iraqis know they won't be able to control the spin on the actual imagery.
I still say this is an Al-Jazeera CYA. They were probably warned to get out while they still can, because things are about to get nasty. Whether "nasty" is defined as "we're about to unleash the WMDs we don't have and obviously you don't want to cover that and prove the Americans 100% correct," or as "We're about to be squashed like a pathetic bug and please don't show it live and make us look pathetic in front of the home crowd," I have no idea.
Doha, Qatar, April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Al-Jazeera Satellite
Channel, criticized by U.S. officials for its war coverage, is a
favorite with rivals worldwide. The Arab-language network pays
most of its expenses with fees it collects from other channels
that use its news footage.
Executives at News Corp's Fox News Channel, Viacom Inc.'s CBS
and General Electric Co.'s NBC said their companies pay Al-Jazeera
for the right to use whatever footage they choose, from exclusive
video of Baghdad to captured U.S. soldiers. The U.S.-based
broadcasters declined to say how much they pay.
The fees are enough to keep Al-Jazeera, started in 1996 by
Qatar's emir with a $150 million investment, from having to ask
its benefactor for more money, according to Al-Jazeera's marketing
chief, Jihad Ali Ballout.
The agreements with U.S. networks are ``a beautiful thing,''
Ballout said in an interview. ``It not only generates money, but
it puts us in bed with reputable partners.''
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week denounced
Doha, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera's broadcast of footage showing
captured U.S. soldiers in Iraq. He said it was a violation of the
Geneva convention to show war prisoners ``in a humiliating
fashion.''
The New York Stock Exchange revoked Al-Jazeera's credentials
last week, citing space considerations, and the Nasdaq Stock
Market said it won't let Al-Jazeera switch to Nasdaq's studios in
light of the network's ``recent conduct during the war.''
$30 Million
Ballout said fees from TV networks are the single biggest
contributor to Al-Jazeera's revenue, which he said totals ``just
less than $30 million'' per year. The fees, which Al-Jazeera
started to collect at the end of 2001 when the emir's start-up
money ran out, let Al-Jazeera come ``very, very close'' to meeting
its operating expenses, which include salaries, he said.
In the U.S., Fox, CBS and NBC pay Al-Jazeera, according to
Fox News spokesman Robert Zimmerman, CBS News spokeswoman Sandy
Genelius and an NBC executive who declined to comment on the
record about the payments.
Television Francaise 1 SA, France's most-watched broadcaster,
buys footage on occasion, a TF1 spokeswoman said. So does RTL
Group SA's RTL Television in Germany, Matthias Bolhoefer, head of
news at RTL Germany said. Japanese private TV networks Asahi
National Broadcasting Co. and Nippon Television Network Corp. have
contracts to use Al-Jazeera footage, the terms of which they
wouldn't disclose.
CNN, ABC
Ballout said the channel has ``not a great deal'' of debt and
the Qatari government covers some costs outside the operating
budget. Al-Jazeera is owned by the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, an
American ally now home to U.S. Central Command, the officers who
have operational control of U.S. forces during the Iraq war.
On air, Al-Jazeera looks like many U.S. news channels, with
computer graphics and male and female anchors who dress like their
counterparts on CNN. Among the differences: prices for several
varieties of oil mix with stock indexes in the lower left-hand
corner of the screen, and the news ticker runs from left to right
to accommodate the Arabic. Al-Jazeera has 35 million viewers,
Ballout said.
Al-Jazeera has footage-sharing agreements with the British
Broadcasting Corp., AOL Time Warner Inc.'s CNN and Walt Disney
Co.'s ABC that don't involve giving money to Al-Jazeera, the
networks said.
``We don't pay them,'' CNN spokesman Matt Furman said of Al-
Jazeera, which he said has been a CNN affiliate since 2001.
Barter Agreements
``No fees are exchanged,'' ABC News spokesman Jeffrey
Schneider said, adding: ``We're interested in the fact that they
have access to locations we have no access to.''
CBS's Genelius, who declined to say how much CBS pays Al-
Jazeera, said it has no plans to sever ties with the channel over
its war coverage.
``We make the editorial decision of what goes on the air and
what doesn't,'' she said. ``We use many different sources for
information and pictures and this is just one of them.''
Fox's Zimmerman also declined to say how much the network
pays Al-Jazeera. ``We pay the standard licensing video
agreement,'' he said. ``We use them as a video footage service.''
Ballout wouldn't say how much money is involved.
Germany's RTL and News Corp.'s Sky News said that in addition
to buying Al-Jazeera footage directly, they get some second-hand
through agreements with networks and news services such as CNN and
Associated Press Television News that have made their own
arrangements for the footage.
Other channels get their Al-Jazeera footage from EuroVision
News, an association of European national broadcasters that signed
an agreement with Al-Jazeera to let subscribers access the Arab
channel's satellite feed during the war, Tony Naets, the head of
EuroVision's news service, said. The agreement, a reciprocal
service, doesn't involve money, he said.
Emir's Decree
German public channel ZDF signed a cooperation agreement with
Copyright (c) 2003, Bloomberg, L. P.
Al-Jazeera in January 2002 by which the channels share footage and
ZDF will help Al-Jazeera set up a bureau in Berlin, ZDF said in a
news release. It didn't disclose financial terms.
The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, founded
Al-Jazeera by decree in 1996 with his $150 million, five-year
grant and a mandate that the station be run by an independent
board, Ballout said.
The station's practice of airing various views on news from
the Arab world, including those that oppose government policies,
angered leaders in the region such as Saudi Arabia's, Kuwait's and
Bahrain's. With Arab advertisers fearing backlash, there's been a
de facto advertising ban, leaving Al-Jazeera with only about a
minute and 15 seconds of ads per hour, Ballout said.
Bin Laden Business
The logo of state-owned Qatar Petroleum is the only
advertiser seen on recent broadcasts, which have had less
advertising than usual because of the war, Ballout said.
As the emir's grant ran out toward the end of 2001, the Sept.
11 attacks on New York and Washington that killed 2,792 people
gave Al-Jazeera a boost, as its footage from Taliban controlled
Afghanistan and tapes of accused mastermind Osama bin Laden became
a marketable asset, Ballout said.
``This was the launch of another line of business, which was
selling footage, and the other was signing operational agreements
with other international news organizations,'' Ballout said.
``They pay a premium for it.''
In addition to selling footage and advertising, the station
has a retail business selling videotapes of its programs in the
Middle East to help meet the operating expenses of Al-Jazeera's
600 employees in 38 locations around the world, Ballout said.
English Channel
Last week, Al-Jazeera started an English-language Web site,
http://www.english.aljazeera.net, which has been largely
inaccessible in recent days after apparently being hit by hackers,
the channel said.
The English Web site is a prelude to a planned English-
language TV station that Al-Jazeera managers are hoping will
provide income from U.S. and European companies that, unlike some
Arab companies, won't hold back ad dollars for fear of offending
Arab leaders criticized on the channel, Ballout said.
``We expect to be on the air this time next year, hopefully
without a war,'' Ballout said.