WASHINGTON, 18 May 2007 — Al-Hurra, the Arabic language satellite television network set up by the US government to promote freedom and democracy in the Middle East, is to be investigated for possible irregularities, the State Department confirmed yesterday.
When the Bush administration launched Al Hurra TV in 2004, its aim was to promote America in the Muslim world. But now some lawmakers who funded it are calling for the resignation of the station’s news director.
Critics say that Larry Register, a former CNN producer who doesn’t speak Arabic, has given voice to terrorists.
In recent weeks both conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats have attacked Al-Hurra for, in the words of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial last week, providing “friendly coverage of camera-ready extremists from Al-Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist groups.”
State Department officials call these errors in judgment. But critics of the station, whose name means “the Free One” in Arabic, say there is little oversight to what the US-funded TV is showing.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG, a federal agency, has asked the State Department’s inspector general to investigate, a spokesman for Karen Hughes, under-secretary for public diplomacy, told reporters. Mrs. Hughes, a board member, was aware of allegations and is awaiting the findings, he said.
Al-Hurra is funded by the BBG and has a budget from Congress of $49 million for 2005. Based in Virginia, just outside Washington, it was created to counter the perceived anti-American bias of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera. It broadcasts to 22 countries, and claims an audience of 21 million people weekly.
The House of Representatives subcommittee on oversight and investigations is also looking into Al-Hurra. A hearing has been set for Nov. 10 with Kenneth Tomlinson, BBG chairman, and Mouafac Harb, the news director of Al-Hurra, called as witnesses.
Officials declined to elaborate on the precise nature of the allegations but said they involved procurement and contracting. There was also concern that viewing figures might be inflated. Media analysts said Al-Hurra’s programming had come to reflect the preponderance of Lebanese on the staff, rather than projecting a pan-Arab outlook.
Harb rejected allegations of any wrongdoing. He told reporters: “There’s a campaign against Al-Hurra by some people in this city who don’t like our dedication to freedom and democracy,” he said.
Broadcast officials acknowledge the station violated editorial guidelines in airing, among other things, an unedited speech by the leader of the Hezbollah, interviews with a Hamas leader, and coverage of a conference in Tehran denying the Holocaust.
Congressman Gary Ackerman, D-NY, who chairs the Middle East subcommittee, asked Wednesday: “Why are American taxpayer dollars used to spread hate, the lies and propaganda of these nuts, when our goal is to counter them?”
Board member Joaqin Blaya testified that Al-Hurra erred in broadcasting “several reports that lacked journalistic or academic merit but said “enhanced editorial structures” aimed at centralizing editorial control are now in place at Al-Hurra.
Observers say that this administration’s efforts of diplomacy in the Middle East, such as dispatching Hughes to talk to Muslim women around the world, have done little to counter the rising anger among Arabs over the American role in Iraq and the Bush administration’s refusal to shut down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Even Republican critics of Al-Hurra tacitly acknowledged that blaming the network might a little like shooting the messenger.
“One witness before this subcommittee last week argued that, ‘it’s the policy, stupid,’” said Congressmen Mike Pense, R-Indiana. “I’m not one who believes we should significantly reorder our policy towards the Middle East.”
