Fifteen
yearsago
younever
hadhired
securityor
thought
aboutbody
armour
in Iran, although Al Jazeera Arabic
is there. We’re not popular in Libya.
Libya is a very, very dangerous
place to be in at the moment,
whoever you are.
We are, of course, not operating
in Egypt. Although when this all is
over, we’re going to have to go back
to Egypt. You can’t be in the Middle
East and not cover Egypt.
What example have the major
powers set in respecting journal-
istic neutrality? US forces, for
example, destroyed Al Jazeera’s
Kabul and Baghdad offices.
It’s an interesting question. Those
attacks, though they were years
ago, were actually directed against
Al Jazeera Arabic. AJ English
wasn’t around - we’ve only been on
the air for about eight years. But the
US came out swinging heavily in
our corner with our guys in Cairo.
It’s been interesting to see who’s
actually supported us.
Our main thrust has been the
outcome for our guys, but there are
another 40 or 50 journalists jailed in
Egypt. There has been a complete
collapse of journalism in Egypt.
And it’s not just in Egypt, it’s in a
lot of places – Ethiopa, Yemen,
Malaysia, pick your poison.
As a company, we’re going to
continue to push for journalist
freedoms and for freedom of speech.
I think in the year to come it’s going
to become very much a rallying cry.
We’ve got an opportunity here.
There’s been a groundswell of
support for our guys, and it would
be a pity once we get them released
to lose that groundswell. It’s
coming from our peer group, it’s
coming from industry, it’s coming
from governments. It’s coming
from the UN and UNESCO. It’s
coming from some really
interesting places.
Heather Allan, thanks.
“
for example, the Kenyan government
is about to put up some very
stringent press laws. Do you keep
your people there? Or do you pull
them out? Most journalists or their
organisations say, “We’re going to
keep them there.” You test the law.
In July 2013, we moved our
journalists to the Cairo Marriott,
after our offices had been raided
and shut. We were operating there
for at least two or three months
very openly. It wasn’t three knocks
on the door to get in, it was a very
open operation. I think they knew
we were there, and we might have
overstayed our welcome. Of course,
it’s an easy thing for me to sit here
a year later and say that.
Since 2011, we’ve had people
arrested in Cairo all the time, and
they’ve always been let go. At the
time it happened, I thought, “We’ll
just go down and get them out.”
But clearly this was a different
situation.
Why do you think this was different?
Was a message being sent?
There’s always been connections
drawn between us and the state of
Qatar. All I can say is that we aren’t
the state of Qatar, we don’t speak
for the state of Qatar, we’re not a
government. I think we got caught
in something that was beyond us,
beyond just Jazeera.
It seems journalists are being used
politically in a way they haven’t
been before – almost as if they
were combatants.
Absolutely. There was a period - I
almost put it up to pre-9/11 - where
we all went to dangerous places and
we had dangerous assignments,
but you were a side show. It would
be unfortunate if you got
kidnapped or killed. But you rather
like the journalistic equivalent of
the Red Cross.
After 9/11, there were a couple of
moments where things tended to
get really radicalised. I think we
became a very valuable commodity
as conflicts got more radicalised.
Up to 2000, you never heard of a
journalist being beheaded. I mean,
you might get arrested or you
might get bounced at an airport.
But you were never actively put up
there as part of a propaganda
machine. It’s very frightening.
Right now, for example, there
are a lot of companies with
journalists on the Turkish side of
Syria, and there’s a very active
warning that’s gone out saying: “Be
careful.” Be careful of your fixers.
Be careful who you go across the
border with. Be careful whose car
you get into. Because you don’t
know. You don’t know what you’re
getting into. That’s a big game
changer for how we cover news.
It’s a global phenomenon now that
journalists have to be careful.
Fifteen years ago you never went
somewhere with hired security. It
wasn’t even something you thought
about. Never. You never thought
about body armour. You never
thought about any of that. You
would just go. You would go to
Beirut. You would go to these
places. You’d go.
The industry has changed so
much. Companies have managers
of safety - their whole editorial jobs
are just on safety. This is all new.
You have to take it seriously.
Has Al Jazeera been targeted
more than other news outlets?
In certain places, yes. Definitely.
We work in a very volatile part of
the world, and in certain countries
we are just banned. We are definitely
persona non grata in Syria. We’re
not popular in the Gulf at the
moment. We don’t operate in
Bahrain or Kuwait. Al Jazeera
English at the moment is restricted
www.aljazeera.com
”
From left
Baher
Mohamed,
Mohamed Famy,
Peter Greste
