DUBAI: A heated discussion took place at the Arab Media Summit yesterday when the editors of Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya TV stations were accused by the audience of bias in their coverage of Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The bone of contention was the terminology used during the coverage, in particular the word “martyr,” which Al-Jazeera used continuously to describe Gazan victims.
Ahmad Al-Sheikh, editor in chief of Al-Jazeera, defended his channel’s use of the word “martyr” saying it is an old editorial decision.
“The word has always been used by the Arabs to describe their dead who died at the hands of their enemies since time immemorial. So we at Al-Jazeera use this word to describe the victims of Israeli aggression,” he said.
Al-Sheikh was, however, quick to point out that it is another issue when Al-Jazeera covers the conflict between Hamas and Fatah. The term used then is “dead” or “casualty.”
During questions, a member of the audience asked Nabil Al-Khatib, executive editor of Al-Arabiya, why he used the word “martyr” to describe the Palestinians in 1994 when he was an MBC correspondent but did not use on Al-Arabiya during the recent aggression. His response was that Al-Arabiya’s policy is not to use the word to describe victims of war.
Al-Sheikh, however, demanded that the Arabs stop toeing the Western line where they focus on discussing issues like the usage of terminology in every conference.
Instead, he said, Arabs should debate issues like corruption, which has a more devastating impact on their societies.
The session, moderated by Dr. Sulaiman Al-Hattlan, discussed accusations that Arab TV channels’ coverage of the war in Gaza was not impartial but echoed the different political viewpoints of the Arab world.
This in turn, according to the accusers, led to the deepening of internal differences among the Arabs.
Al-Sheikh denied that his channel played a role in causing a rift in the Arab world and questioned the idea of a unified Arab street. “Since when did we have a united front? The Arabs have been divided since the Sykes-Picot agreement. And its not only Al-Jazeera that has been blamed for causing rifts but before us Sout Al-Arab (Voice of the Arab) and Al-Ahram newspaper have been accused of the same crime,” he said.
