Arab world's top satellite news channels are accused of inciting violence, bias in coverage of events in Iraq.
The Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya television channels have come under renewed and scathing criticism from US and Iraqi officials for their coverage of events in Iraq where they are accused of inciting violence.
The two Arabic stations continue to dedicate airtime to the war-torn country, specifically the situation in the flashpoint city of Fallujah where a US onslaught launched last week has reportedly killed more than 600 Iraqis.
Shocking images of burnt bodies in the Sunni stronghold, as well as those of dead or wounded and bloodied women and children are transmitted by both channels, flooding television screens in the Arab world and sending shockwaves throughout the region.
Young hooded fighters are given a voice on the stations as they criticize the US-led occupation of Iraq and vow to fight it, their cries for revenge often accompanied by graphic images of what is portrayed as an unbalanced and horrific war.
Both Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya have also been the exclusive broadcasters of several videotapes of foreigners kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq.
"O mujahedeen, we have decided to live and die in this city," cries a young fighter, his head covered by a balaklava and gun in hand, as he is filmed in the city, the image repeatedly broadcast Tuesday on Qatar-based Al-Jazeera.
The US-led coalition and its Iraqi allies on Monday accused the two stations of fanning anti-US sentiment and sectarian violence in Iraq with their reporting.
"Al-Jazeera forcefully rejects these accusations which it considers a threat to the media's right and mission ... and an unjustified pressure on the freedom to inform," it said in a statement Tuesday.
It also affirmed its support in giving a voice to "all parties concerned with the situation in Iraq, with all objectivity, neutrality and professionalism."
"Al-Jazeera is regularly the butt of criticism, often misplaced," spokesman Jihad Ballout said Monday.
The widely viewed channel is merely "reporting events objectively, which cannot possibly please everyone," he said.
Dubai-based Al-Arabiya expressed "surprise" at the criticism.
Editorial director Salah Najm said the station "is doing its best to assure global coverage of the situation in Iraq, with reports from our correspondents, witnesses and statements by different parties" on the Iraqi scene.
"We carry out our mission according to freedom of expression, which they tell us now prevails in Iraq," he added.
The coalition's deputy director of operations, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, said Monday "anti-US sentiment has been heightened by Al-Jazeera and other anti-coalition media reporting" on the closure of a Shiite radical newspaper and the siege of the insurgent bastion of Fallujah.
Iraq's national security advisor, Muaffaq al-Rubaie, a Shiite, also accused both channels of inciting violence among the country's ethnic groups with their reporting and warned that they, and any other "irresponsible" Arab media, could be banned from reporting from Iraq.
General John Abizaid, the head of US Central Command, singled out Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya as portraying US military action "as purposely targeting civilians, and we absolutely do not do that, and I think everybody knows that."
"They have not been truthful in their reporting. Haven't been accurate," said Abizaid.
Al-Jazeera attracted international attention through its coverage of the US military campaign in Afghanistan and broadcasting videotaped statements of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin-Laden.
The channel is popular among Arab viewers but has equally irked many governments in the region for tackling political, social and at times sexual issues, previously regarded as taboo.
Dubai-based Al-Arabiya was launched early last year by its Saudi owners as an alternative to Al-Jazeera.
Like its Qatar-based rival, it too has broadcast messages and videotapes attributed to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, before his capture last December, and to bin Laden and his deputies.
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