AL JAZEERA QUALITY ASSURANCE CHIEF BELIEVES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DOHA 001745

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 QUALITY ASSURANCE CHIEF BELIEVES
PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE

REF: A. 05 DOHA 1786

B. DOHA 312

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


1. (C) Summary: PAO met December 14 with Al Jazeera Quality
Assurance Chief, Jaafar Abbas Ahmed, to review progress made
by the Qality Assurance (QA) Unit in his assessment since Ref
A report in October 2005. In the intervening period, Abbas
was named head of QA for the overall Al Jazeera Network,
which includes Al Jazeera Arabic (AJA) and Al Jazeera English
(AJE) among others. According to Abbas, AJE's performance is
proving to be "an eye-opener" to AJA staff, and he foresees
considerable mutual benefit accruing to the two channels from
their proximity to each other. Abbas feels considerable
progress has been made in establishing the credibility of the
QA unit, which is now regarded by AJ staff with "a mixture of
hostility and respect," whereas initially (Ref A),the unit
was regarded "with open hostility." The QA Unit is undergoing
expansion and hopes to undertake more sophisticated content
analysis in the coming months. End summary.

QA for the Network
--------------


2. (C) Initially established in 2004 to monitor news and
program quality -- specifically accuracy and bias -- at AJA,
the QA Unit's mandate has now been extended to cover the
entire Al Jazeera Network (established in March 2006, Ref B),
which includes Al Jazeera Arabic (AJA),Al Jazeera English
(AJE),the two websites, Al Jazeera Direct (cf C-Span) and
the soon to be launched Al Jazeera Documentary (cf the
Discovery Channel). According to Abbas, the decision to name
him to the Network was taken by AJN Director-General Wadah
Khanfar, in order to ensure uniform standards of quality
across the network. Abbas, who drafted the AJ Codes of Ethics
and Conducts implemented at AJA eighteen months ago, has
re-issued the two Codes for adoption by all AJ entities after
a current period of open comment from all staff. Although the
Codes cover all standard international journalism concepts
(honesty, fairness, objectivity, independence, dealing with
sources etc),the original AJA codes were written
specifically for an Arabic channel and needed to be revamped
to cover the new overall AJ reality, Abbas said.


3. (C) Abbas said that in his opinion the November 15 launch
of AJE has proved in many ways to be "an eye-opener" for many
of the Arabic staff, particularly with regard to coverage of
Arab/Middle Eastern/Muslim issues. The AJE staff tend to be
mainly "from established democracies" and "balance comes to
them so naturally. It is second nature to them to tell the
other side of the story," he said, adding that the AJE
journalists' attitude of "positive neutrality" is a new
element for most of the Arab journalists (whether raised in
"Republics of Fear" and used to either toeing the official
line in previous jobs, or used to not being able to express
their own opinions freely, or used to unthinking emotional
bias with regard to Arab issues). While AJE brings this
benefit to AJA, AJA in its turn is able to inform and support
AJE with its expertise and background on Middle Eastern/Arab
affairs, he said.

QA Unit now "respected"
--------------


4. (C) PAO recalled that during their last conversation (Ref
A),Abbas had noted that the QA Unit was regarded with "open
hostility" by Al Jazeera journalists, and asked whether that
situation had changed. Abbas said the QA Unit has steadily
gained in credibility and is now regarded with "a mixture of
respect and hostility." The QA Unit produces a daily report
on all the news bulletins, which is discussed by mandate at
the daily 1pm editorial meeting, he said. The QA Unit also
produces focused sustained reports on a single individual -
whether a correspondent in the field or a presenter in the
studio - which is used to provide counseling where necessary.
Fully backed by AJN DG Wadah Khanfar, the QA Unit has been
given some administrative teeth, he said -- some journalists
have lost their jobs over repeated deliberate violations of
the Code of Conduct, and the QA Unit now has input into the
performance review that decides the annual salary increments
the AJ staff receive. "No journalist now dares to be openly
biased in script," he said, which had not been the case a
year ago. Occasionally a reporter in the field will make

DOHA 00001745 002 OF 003


comments showing bias during unscripted post-report
interviews with anchors, he said. Sometimes this is because a
reporter may be weak at ad-libbing; sometimes established
verbal patterns take over; sometimes the bias is deliberate.
In all cases, the reporter is called to task and the slip
documented, said Abbas.


5. (C) The QA Unit, formerly located in separate premises in
a different part of town, is now located on the Al Jazeera
compound, with QA Unit staff offices actually inside the Al
Jazeera newsroom. Abbas said this co-location has contributed
to the reduction in hostility between AJ staff and the QA
Unit. The ability to discuss and resolve issues in person at
the time they arise has been a positive factor, he said.


QA Unit to add 6 new employees
--------------


6. (C) Abbas said he is currently interviewing for six new
staff members, to add to the current 7-member QA Unit. This
is partly to identify some native English speakers with good
Arabic to take on the task of monitoring AJE, but Abbas also
said he wants to take the QA Unit in the direction of content
analysis. Now that the more overt forms of bias are much less
of a problem, Abbas said he is interested in looking at the
"more subtle forms of bias." For example, the ratio of
coverage of some issues compared to others in overall
programming; the number of times certain guests appear; the
types of guests that appear, and so forth. Abbas says that by
tracking such concepts "we will eradicate a lot of
undetectable bias."


The big name shows are still no-go areas
--------------


7. (C) Abbas said there are "some shows" he no longer
monitors -- mentioning specifically Faisal Al Qasim's "The
Opposite Direction" (a heated Cross Talk-type show); Sammy
Haddad's "More Than One Opinion" (a discussion show) and
Ahmed Mansour's "Without Limits" (a one-on-one interview
show). On Al Qasim he said ("off the record") that in his
view the show should be "wiped off the air" -- Al Qasim has
run out of steam, no longer has anything to add to the
general discourse. He started out discussing significant
issues such as reform and democracy, but "last week he had a
show on plastic surgery!" No self-respecting intellectual
will appear on Al Qasim's show, said Abbas. Regarding
Mansour, he said Mansour is a "good journalist, researches
his topics and prepares very well. It's not for me to say why
he is rude to some of his guests and overly polite to
others," said Abbas. (Note: A Cairo-based Egyptian, Mansour
is known for favoring "Islamist" pro-Muslim Brotherhood
guests on his show. These three names are among Al Jazeera's
most senior and most prominent and well-established
personalities. PAO inferred from Abbas's words and demeanor
that he had likely clashed with them at some point, come off
worst in the encounter and declined to give further input
where it was ignored. Although his claims of having gained
respect and influence over the rank and file of AJ's
journalistic staff seem credible clearly he still has some
way to go when it coms to such AJ seasoned heavy-hitters as
Haddad, A Qasim and Mansour. End note.)

In-house politica education series
--------------


8. (C) Abbas said he is in charge of organizing a monthly
lecture series on "political education", which aims at giving
the AJ journalistic staff theoretical background in
"concepts, ideas and schools of thought." he said. The most
recent lecture was on Shi'aism. Other lecturers have included
a representative of Hezballah and one from the Tunisian
"Renaissance" party, he said. PAO noted that the Embassy
would be pleased to organize a talk for this series by
Embassy Doha's visiting Fulbright professor, a University of
Massachusetts professor currently teaching an international
affairs program at Qatar University. Abbas welcomed the idea
and we will pursue it.

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


DOHA 00001745 003 OF 003



9. (C) A seasoned and committed journalist, Abbas made it
clear he feels his unit has made significant progress in
greatly reducing basic journalistic problems relating to
accuracy and bias. This he sees as largely due to the
high-level AJ support the QA mandate enjoys and the
administrative teeth it has been permitted to develop, with
an unexpected boost provided by the living example of the
more seasoned and sophisticated AJE phenomenon next door. His
vision is now focused on providing more in-depth "content
analysis" requiring a more sophisticated and broader approach
to the overall news day. AJ appears to have been forthcoming
with the budgetary support he needs to implement this vision.
Post will continue to report on his efforts.
UNTERMEYER