I used to be a big fan of Al Jazeera. Drawn in by its seemingly high-quality content and commitment to challenging political incorrectness globally, I found myself resonating with its progressive and liberal perspectives. The Doha-based news organisation’s critical stance on various issues appealed to my values. However, over time, a discerning eye began to unveil the subtle threads of hypocrisy woven into its narrative. It became evident that, despite its claim of objective reporting, Al Jazeera often served as a means to appease the interests of specific groups. The brazen nature of this alignment became increasingly difficult to ignore, even for someone who once found resonance in its programming.
There’s a striking disconnect between the Al Jazeera network and its professed values and its stance on the actions of the Qatari royal family. Al Jazeera, though funded by the government of Qatar, is an independent private news network known to maintain and assert its editorial independence. It is, therefore, intriguing to see that this organisation, so vocal about Islamophobia and minority rights, remains notably silent on the absolute Islamist monarchy in Qatar. There’s a paradox in its stance. Conveniently ignoring the goings on at home, it demands that India be a perfectly secular and democratic country. This is reflected in the numerous opinion articles on the platform that depict India as a fascist nation in the making.
Unmasking double standards
In the realm of media hypocrisy, Qatar’s Al-Jazeera takes centre stage. While expressing concerns over the resignation of NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar and press freedom in India, the network conveniently ignores its own backyard. A glaring example lies in the arrest and deportation of two Norwegian journalists investigating the condition of migrant workers involved in the preparations for the 2022 Fifa World Cup held in Qatar. The journalists were detained for 36 hours, but Al-Jazeera remained eerily silent on their story, exposing its double standards.
Equally perplexing is Al Jazeera’s hushed stance on Qatar’s media restrictions in the wake of the anti-hijab protests in Iran last year. Its one-sided coverage has faced considerable criticism. Qatar’s media landscape shows it isn’t the press freedom champion it claims to be. The silence on these matters raises questions about Al Jazeera’s commitment to unbiased journalism.
Al Jazeera advocates freedom of speech and a free press while simultaneously entertaining opinion articles that question the same freedom of speech when it comes to Muslim sentiments. One article equated hurting Muslim sentiments to shouting “fire” in a cinema hall, shifting blame from those committing crimes in reaction to those supposedly offending.
Al Jazeera frequently criticises nations, often pushing the claim of Islamophobia without restraint. The limit was crossed when an op-ed – that the organisation has since retracted – suggested that Tunisia was displaying internalised Islamophobia for imposing restrictions on religious activities during Covid-19. These instances cast shadows on the network’s commitment to unbiased journalism, leaving us to question the authenticity of its advocacy for free speech.
Al Jazeera has also come under scrutiny from various Arab media sources for allegedly adopting inconsistent positions in its reporting across its English and Arabic platforms. One notable example is its coverage of gender equality. While Al Jazeera English (AJE) produced a video criticising Saudi Arabia for its policies on gender mixing at public events, Al Jazeera Arabic (AJA) took a contrasting stance. AJA’s coverage condemned both women and men celebrating Saudi Arabia’s national day at mixed events, going so far as to invite a political ethics and religious history professor, Mohammed al-Mokhtar al-Shinqiti, who, while quoting critics, called this mixing “akin to pornography.”
Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict is also being criticised for being one-sided. Moreover, instances of the network exhibiting anti-Semitic sentiments have been noted in the past. On 30 May 2017, Al Jazeera’s English-language account retweeted an Anti-Semitic meme, prompting the network to issue an apology and attribute it as a “mistake.”
Furthermore, in May 2019, AJ+ produced a video that denied and minimised the Holocaust. Al Jazeera acknowledged the error and swiftly deleted the video, stating that it had violated the editorial standards of the network. The video controversially claimed that the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust had been exaggerated and “adopted by the Zionist movement,” suggesting that Israel was the “biggest winner” from the genocide. These incidents have contributed to concerns about the network’s objectivity and adherence to ethical reporting standards.
Al Jazeera’s hypocrisy is a lesson for youth who consume news that seemingly aligns with their progressive and liberal values. It underscores the importance of being vigilant, as the outward pursuit of human rights and political correctness can sometimes mask the manipulation of principles and humanity for propaganda purposes. Al Jazeera’s journalism prompts us to discern whether the media we consume genuinely upholds the values it claims or if it exploits noble causes to advance hidden agendas.
Amana Begam Ansari is a columnist and TV news panelist. She runs a weekly YouTube show called ‘India This Week by Amana and Khalid’. She tweets @Amana_Ansari. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)