AL JAZEERA AND FREEDOM

In a modern civil society, media has become one of the main tools of building the civil society itself. Every member of society, nowadays, has the ability to access every corner of information which by the end will create an enlightened society. With the development in media the opportunity for the subordinate group of society to emerge to the mainstream public sphere becoming more and more wide.

However, the opportunity for the subordinate group of society in some sense is still restricted either by availability of capital or by, in some case, states regulation. In Habermas bourgeois society the subordinate group’s opportunity might be eliminated by the availability of capital since media will be owned and control by the bourgeois group and in a weak society where representation of public in government is limited, state regulation will become the obstacle. But still when media become available to all member of society, it might drive perspective of its consumers/member of society toward a certain direction and with this ability, media hold an immense power to shape the public opinion toward an issue. The process of enlightening society should be preceded by freedom granted by the state to its people. This process comes parallel to Kant’s theory where he said, “If only freedom is granted, enlightenment is almost sure to follow”.

However, in most of authoritarian states, state control over news broadcast may jeopardize the forming of any civil society. Media become part of state control over its people. State will decide what and when any news can be broadcasted in media and as the result, media will lose its ability to control and criticize the state where as Habermas described in his essay ‘ The Public Sphere’, “the term ‘public opinion’ refers to the functions of criticism and control of organized state authority….”. When this ability lost, it means that state can shape public opinion in any way it wants because the state will only give one version of the news where as in a free atmosphere; people can choose their view from various sources of news.

In this background, Al Jazeera has become one of the major players in the news world especially in the Middle East. Before Al Jazeera comes, in most of Middle East countries, state control over news media was very dominant. As the result of this control most of Arab population become segmented apart from similarities in language and religion. The idea of Pan-Arab nation that had existed since the turn of 20th century seems lose its meaning because of this segmentation. The common identity and issues do not become common interest among Arab nation due to state restriction over freedom of expression. Maintaining its domination is the main aim of the state rather than enlightening its people.

However, after his bloodless coup in 1995, Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Ahmad Bin Khalifa tried to change this culture by establishing a free of state influence news station in 1996 and Al Jazeera was born. The Emirate of Qatar will fund the station but they will not make any restriction concerning news content of the station. The implication of this establishment was not only felt in Qatar but also among other Arab nations and worldwide. Al Jazeera has succeeded to keep all Arab nations in a same direction in issues concerning the region. Most of Arab people may feel that they can have valid news without any state influence in the truth of the news. In this case, it was not the member of society who made the first move to establish this tool of enlightenment but the state who took the initiative.

This can be understood because even in Qatar as a monarch country state control must be so strong that it must be the government takes the initiative or no one will. However, this circumstance should be judge carefully where since its government fund institution, obviously, more or less state influence will stir the direction of the news, at least news concerning the state itself. Some critics argue that Al Jazeera coverage about Qatar is limited to insignificant news. Outside Qatar Al Jazeera might play an important role in the changing of the society but inside Qatar it seems that the role is not significant enough. This phenomenon creates a pseudo-enlighten society in Qatar where the freedom only granted when it deals with issues outside Qatar, however, in Qatar itself the freedom simply not exists.

Since its establishment, Al Jazeera, has given an alternative source of news and information to the Arab world, which before much more relied on western news stations to get news from outside their area. Not only as an alternative source but Al Jazeera also become the media to amplify the Arabs’ aspirations toward issues in their region, especially when the issues that make them face the western civilization. In the case of Intifada in Palestine or Iraq war, Al Jazeera uses terms which might strange to western people. Al Jazeera uses term such as ‘martyr’ rather than ‘terrorist’, ‘assassination’ rather than ‘targeted killing’ which more familiar to western people since those terms used by western news media such as CNN, BBC, AP, etc. Although the terms seem strange for western’s ear but in Arab world terms which are used by Al Jazeera are more common. The uses of these terms, as the result, create the sense of commonness among the Arabs. The stress of common interests not only the main reason for Al Jazeera to grab its viewer. The uses of a variant of Arabic language that can be understood regardless dialect also enable Al Jazeera to unite its viewers. It makes not only Arabs in Qatar will understand Al Jazeera but Arabs in Yemen also able to comprehend their news.

Al Jazeera effort to give an alternative side of news during Iraq war can be seen in Jehane Noujim’s documentary film ‘Control Room’. This documentary tries to show Al JAzeera coverage of Iraq war with side story of other journalists in Iraq. The documentary shows how Al Jazeera was critized by both the American, in this film shown by Donald Rumsfeld complaining that Al Jazeera become propaganda tool for the insurgents and in the other side the Iraqis also accuse Al Jazeera as the mouthpiece of American propaganda. It also focusing on the bombing of Al Jazeera headquarter in Baghdad by the United State army. The film shows footage of the attack, including the firing of a missile by an American A-10 'tankbuster'; the film reports that the alleged target was a group of insurgents who opened fire on coalition forces from within the Al Jazeera building, thus justifying retaliatory fire. As a documentary film, Control Room, tries as much as possible to take a neutral side of any factions in the war although it is rather hard for the producer to maintain the neutrality of the film.

Al Jazeera’s political talk show programs enable its viewers to bring about their personal view to public where before they do not have any mean to do such a thing due to lack of opportunity. The Arabs can express their dissatisfaction to their government in this kind of program. They also could bring out their view directly to their government without any necessity of formal constitutional medium. However, this situation could also create a ‘street court’ where public could judge their government’s actions or policies. Their thoughts where previously only exist in their private chamber now have the way to emerge to more than private discussion. Not only the emerging of private opinion to public space but also now their viewers are able to see any uprising or movement in other place where as before such news will surely banned by their government. As the result, Arab viewers are becoming more and more critical toward their own government.

The unbiased point of view of Al Jazeera which become the main concern of its critics especially from the west can not be separated from Al Jazeera’s effort to create justice for the Arabs when they face the west. The United State official in few occasion accuse Al Jazeera as pro-Iraqi bias in their reportages. The notion of justice was lost when the Arabs deal with their regional issues such as conflict between Palestine and Israel or war against terrorism. Most of the Arabs feel that they are treated badly by the west and also they feel that not only their government restricts their knowledge of the world development but also they feel that western media always treat them badly with their news manipulation. The way Al Jazeera puts them in their news is able to bring back their self-esteem.

Although most of Arab populations embrace Al Jazeera with great joy, different greetings come from their government since government power of censorship has been eliminated by Al Jazeera’s satellite broadcast. Arab governments try to apply different kind of censorship when they deal with Al Jazeera; either by shutting down Al Jazeera office in their territory or making a formal complaint to Qatar government. Algerian government even went further by cutting down their cities power supply during Al Jazeera’ program dealing with massacre committed by their military. Even the champion of freedom of speech like United State of America accuses Al Jazeera as not fair in their coverage. In some occasions, American army in Iraq bombards and although the Americans say that it was a mistake but some critics consider it as a deliberate bombing.

During Iraq war, Al Jazeera shows a different side of the war to its viewers. Different from most of western media which mostly show the Coalition Armies as the victor of the war, Al Jazeera shows the opposition images. And these images create empathy and gain more interest from its Arab viewers but in the other hand a contrast reaction come from the western viewers and from the United State government, in their consideration, this reaction equals to black campaign against their policies in Iraq. Cabinet members and Pentagon officials critize and condemn Al Jazeera for frequently broadcasting civilian casualties as well as footage of American POWs where with this activities, Al Jazeera has revealed and shown to its viewers and the world everything about Iraq that the Bush administration did not want them to see. Even member of United State field army in Iraq may react in strong manner. This reaction shown dramatically in “Control Room” in a scene where a Marine officer was interviewed and mentioned his contrast feeling when he watched footage of Iraq war in CNN and Al Jazeera.

In comparison to other independent news media, the nature of Al Jazeera's independency, in the surface its government control does not so obvious but from its reportage performance toward Qatar, the control can be seen.

In this case, discourse of both stations is about government and private enterprise. In one hand, government control becoming lesser in private enterprise but the capital requirement will also create a restriction to what issue might interest its viewers rather than what issue might become important to its viewers. The choice of topic become restricted in profitable or not. This restriction will create a situation where an issue which concerning a subordinate group of society will not come into ‘spot light’ if the station consider its as unprofitable. On the other hand, when a station is funded by a government, although the control might be not so obvious, the opportunity for the subordinate issue is getting smaller because the consideration is not only concerning business decision but also whether it will offend the government or not.

In the era of capitalism as in the present, this dilema could not be avoided. The capital demand always haunt any news station to operate. The phenomena of industrialisation has come not only in consumer good products industry but it also come face to face to ideal discourse where the opportunity to present an idea to public space become restricted due to the availability of capital power.