DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Al-Jazeera has come under criticism and even military attack, and now one of its star reporters is charged with being an al-Qaida member.
But instead of taking a low profile, the Arab television station aired another controversial scoop: what appears to be new footage of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Adnan al-Sharif, the station's manager, said in an interview Thursday that criticism — from Arab governments unused to having their points of view challenged, as well as from U.S. officials who accuse the station of giving terrorists a platform — will not force Al-Jazeera to change. Al-Jazeera is willing to pay "the price of success," he said.
On Wednesday, the eve of the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Jazeera aired exclusive videotape showing bin Laden clambering over rocky mountain terrain with a rifle slung over his shoulder — the first video images of the al-Qaida leader in nearly two years.
A day later, a Spanish judge formally charged the satellite station's former Kabul correspondent Tayssir Alouni with being a "prominent" member of bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, court officials said. Alouni, the only reporter to have interviewed bin Laden since the Sept. 11 attacks, has been in custody since he was arrested Saturday at his holiday home in southern Spain.
"We did not expect that such a charge could be leveled against a reporter ... who like most, seeks scoops," al-Sharif said.
Severine Cazes, who heads the Middle East desk of the journalists' advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, said her organization is closely following the Alouni case, but believed it was not yet clear whether it was a freedom of expression case or a terrorism case.
"Al-Jazeera has been criticized ... by all sides," Cazes said in a telephone interview from Paris, crediting the station with having "drastically changed the television landscape in the Arab world."
The pan-Arab station, operating since 1996, was funded by the Qatari government but has shown an editorial independence and aggressiveness that were remarkable in a region where governments usually dictate what goes on the air.
Arab dissidents have come on Al-Jazeera to criticize their governments, often in strong terms. Jordan, Bahrain, Libya, Morocco and Algeria have responded by closing Al-Jazeera's offices, expelling its correspondents or withdrawing their diplomats from Qatar in protest.
It isn't just governments who have reacted — the station's reporters have been harassed by Iraqis for their perceived pro-Saddam Hussein coverage.
Nonetheless, lively talk shows featuring debates about the state of Arab affairs draw audiences, as do statements by al-Qaida and its top operatives, including bin Laden. The station's editorial stance also reflects general Arab skepticism of the United States and Israel and support for the Palestinians.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld singled out Al-Jazeera in complaints Monday that false reports in Arab news media complicated the fight against terrorism. During the war in Iraq, American and British officials said the station played up anti-Western sentiments in the Middle East, and asked it to desist.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday the U.S. administration has criticized Al-Jazeera for "the kind of things they put on and the kind of things that they say on their air," maintaining it sometimes amounted to "incitement."
But, he added, "We have worked with them. We have offered them people who can explain our point of view, and they have put them on the air. And we've tried to maintain that relationship and get our views across."
Still, some wonder if the station's critics go further than verbal attacks. Hours after Kabul fell to the northern alliance and Alouni fled the capital, Al-Jazeera's office was struck by U.S. warplanes. The military said the strike was a mistake.
In April, shortly before the fall of Baghdad, the station's office came under fire and one of its correspondents was killed. Allied forces said the building was targeted because they thought Iraqi fighters were taking refuge there.
"The missile strike on the Al-Jazeera facility [in Baghdad] raises questions about whether the building was deliberately targeted," the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a protest letter to U.S. officials.
Cazes, of Reporters Without Borders, said even if a station is airing propaganda, that is no reason for a government to respond with force. In this case, she said, "there is no proof" that Al-Jazeera is aiding any fighting force.
Governments "should put up with a medium that is not 100 percent compliant with their own point of view," Cazes said. "That's just freedom of speech, freedom of the press."
In recent years, other Arab stations have copied Al-Jazeera's style. Al-Jazeera officials say they're no more worried about the competition than about criticism.
Pressure "will not change our professionalism nor our quest for credibility," station manager al-Sharif said.
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