Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06DOHA1715
2006-12-07 11:04:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Doha
Cable title:  

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH HEAD OF NEWS CAUTIOUSLY

Tags:  KPAO PREL QA ALJAZEERA 
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VZCZCXRO8869
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHDO #1715/01 3411104
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 071104Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY DOHA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5896
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1000
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//PASS TO USCENTCOM FWD//
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DOHA 001715 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/PD, NEA/ARP
INFO NSC FOR ABRAMS, DOD/OSD FOR SCHENKER AND MATHENY
LONDON FOR ARAB MEDIA OFFICE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/30/2011
TAGS: KPAO PREL QA ALJAZEERA
SUBJECT: AL JAZEERA ENGLISH HEAD OF NEWS CAUTIOUSLY
OPTIMISTIC, SEEKS FEEDBACK

REF: DOHA 1659

Classified By: Ambassador Chase Untermeyer, reasons 1.4 (b&d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DOHA 001715

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/PD, NEA/ARP
INFO NSC FOR ABRAMS, DOD/OSD FOR SCHENKER AND MATHENY
LONDON FOR ARAB MEDIA OFFICE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/30/2011
TAGS: KPAO PREL QA ALJAZEERA
SUBJECT: AL JAZEERA ENGLISH HEAD OF NEWS CAUTIOUSLY
OPTIMISTIC, SEEKS FEEDBACK

REF: DOHA 1659

Classified By: Ambassador Chase Untermeyer, reasons 1.4 (b&d)


1. (U) PAO met December 6 with Ibrahim Helal, Deputy Managing
Director for News and Programming of Al Jazeera English
(AJE). The Egyptian-born Helal is 36 years old and worked as
program editor for the Al Jazeera Arabic (AJA) channel from
its founding in 1996 until 1999. He then worked for Abu Dhabi
TV as head of news from 2000 to 2001, before returning to AJA
as editor-in-chief. He left AJA when current AJA MD Wadah
Khanfar took over the reins in 2003 and worked at the BBC
World Service Trust as Project Director for the Middle East
and North Africa, where he was responsible for training and
development of Arab media organizations. He joined AJE in May

2006.

2.(U) When asked for his assessment of AJE's performance so
far, Helal said cautiously "so far, so good," but that he was
reluctant to pronounce "so soon" (Per reftel, AJE launched
three weeks ago, on November 15). He was anxious to hear
PAO's assessment of AJE's performance so far. PAO said it was
early days yet, but the launch seemed to have gone very well
and the overall reaction in international media to date
seemed to have been positive. She noted that AJE has
certainly delivered on its promise to bring news of "the
South to the North", with its extended focus on developing
country issues, and asked to what extent Helal thought this
sort of focus may prove alienating to broader international
audiences.


3. (U) Helal agreed it was a danger (making specific
reference to a current, very extended, series of programs on
the problem of malaria) and said that part of AJE's balancing
act at this point is to ensure that it has specific
objectives for its "South to North" programming. Some of the
program editors are so eager to fulfill this mandate, that
they do not question what the specific objectives may be. AJE
has to consider the ethical lines in question here, he said.
A television station cannot set itself up to act as a
political tool in order to force change in any arena -- that
would take it beyond its journalistic mandate. Helal said

this was an issue he had had with Al Jazeera Arabic -- where
many of the reporting and editorial staff wanted to be
perceived as activist and to feel activist, but in the last
analysis, had no coherent specific objectives behind their
programming and editing choices, not to mention the fact that
activism runs counter to TV journalism imperatives.

Middle East coverage
--------------


4. (U) A large part of AJE's strength will be the texture it
brings to coverage of Middle East issues, which, because of
their potential and actual impact, are actually
international, rather than regional issues, Helal said.
Taking the recent assassination of Pierre Jemayl in Lebanon
as an example, Helal said that AJE was able to bring a much
more accurate sense of the Lebanese realities to the
English-speaking screen, highlighting complexities that are
glossed over by Western media. But "is it too much for the
average viewer?" he worried. Does the average viewer want
that level of detail?

Iraq
--------------


5. (C) PAO asked how AJE was managing Iraq coverage. Helal
said AJE had asked the Al Maliki government for access and
had spoken to "the Iranians" about the issue as well. He said
the Iranians, who "seemed to be speaking for the Al Maliki
government" gave a positive response to the AJE request, but
so far permission from the Al Maliki government has not been
forthcoming. Like AJA, he said, AJE can operate in the north
of Iraq and otherwise procures footage from local production
houses and manages quite a comprehensive coverage of events
in Iraq from Doha. He asked PAO if the USG could help with
getting Iraq access for AJE and PAO responded that that would
be a decision for the Iraqi government to make.

Terrorist videotapes
--------------


6. (U) PAO asked what the AJE policy would be should it

DOHA 00001715 002 OF 003


receive a tape from Al Qaeda and their ilk. Helal said AJE's
policy would be the same as AJA's -- "if it is newsworthy, we
will air it."

Personnel issues
--------------


7. (U) Helal noted that AJE is still about 20 percent
under-staffed, which will affect its ability to switch to
24-hour live news coverage (Note: The channel launched with
12 hours of live news a day - noon to midnight GMT - and has
now expanded to 17 hours, from 1000 GMT to 0300 GMT). He did
not anticipate being able to reach 24-hour coverage before
next February. He acknowledged difficulty with hiring Arab
nationals to work at AJE. "We had PR about having 30 percent
Arabs on our staff before launch, but we don't," he said. He
estimated that Arab staff are less than 20 percent of news
staff, and blamed stymied clearances by the Qatari Government
-- few Arab candidates receive the OK from the GOQ internal
security, he said.

Getting feedback
--------------


8. (U) Helal said the process of gathering feedback is
largely done by AJE's PR department, who gather and analyze
commentary, and share trends and specifics with the news
staff. "We also have many friends at CNN, BBC and so forth,
who let us know what they think," but no formal ratings data
is available yet in the region. Helal saw that as something
AJE would focus on at a later stage of its establishment. He
claimed, laughing, that CNN and BBC had emergency strategy
meetings when AJE launched, to assess the impact of the new
channel and define strategies to meet its new challenge. He
noted he was pleased with the lack of negative feedback from
the Al Jazeera Arabic channel: "I know we have many, many
enemies over there, and we would have heard right away if
there had been problems" from their perspective with AJE's
coverage of Middle East issues, he said.

Interaction with AJA
--------------


9. (U) He noted that interaction with AJA has proved fruitful
for AJE so far. "We meet every day with their editorial
team," he said. AJE did a recent special on Congo, which
relied heavily on AJA access and contacts during its
production. AJE has used AJA's Bahrain correspondent for
actual reporting - "he happens to speak good English, and I
thought, why not?" said Helal. Similarly, he said, AJE used a
translated report from an AJA reporter "for variety" during
recent events in Lebanon, and has also used some of AJA's
exclusive footage.

Assessment of Al Jazeera Arabic
--------------


10. (U) PAO asked Helal how he saw AJA currently. He said AJA
has made a lot of progress in the last few years in many
areas, but still has work to do. It now has 75 reporters
worldwide, for example. "That is huge," he said, and noted
that problems with "TV-readiness" quality control therefore
abound. He said AJA is very strict on accuracy and Doha staff
review each AJA report for accuracy at several points before
it goes to air - including having Doha staff edit the package
if necessary just before it goes to air. At AJE, "we are not
so strict. We trust our reporters," he said, adding that AJE
field-produced segments frequently go directly to air with
little or no Doha review. Therefore, he said, although the
AJA reports are accurate, have all the right interviewees and
present all the facts, they are written for newspaper or
radio, they are not written for TV, he said.

Comment
--------------


11. (C) Helal appears young, energetic, knowledgeable and
articulate and is clearly very much aware of the history Al
Jazeera English is building upon and of the opposing pitfalls
- among Middle Eastern and Western audiences alike -- facing
the new channel. He was brought to AJE by Wadah Khanfar in
May 2006 at the height of tensions between the Arabic and
English channels, when significant numbers of the former were
concerned that a "Westerner-run" AJE would hijack Al

DOHA 00001715 003 OF 003


Jazeera's hard-won brand and Arab identity. His history with
Al Jazeera Arabic and his strong regional/cultural
credentials have no doubt been an important element in
quieting those tensions. He will certainly have a key role in
determining whether those tensions are eventually resolved or
whether they flare up again He urged PAO to keep in touch
and not to hesitate to provide feedback at any time or to
request clarification if something "does not appear clear."
UNTERMEYER