AL JAZEERA TELLS GLASSMAN IT'S RESTRUCTURING TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DOHA 000633 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/04/2018 TAGS: PREL KPAO PGOV QA SUBJECT: AL JAZEERA TELLS GLASSMAN IT'S RESTRUCTURING TO BOOST PROFESSIONALISM AND INDEPENDENCE REF: DOHA 581 Classified By: AMBASSADOR JOSEPH E. LEBARON, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D ). -------------- (C) KEY POINTS -------------- -- Al Jazeera has launched a 5-year restructuring plan to become profitable, to include creating subsidiaries to broadcast in additional languages, Director General Waddah Khanfar told visiting U/S Glassman August 26. -- Relations with the USG are "much better than before," Khanfar said; cable providers in the United States, however, are still reluctant to carry Al Jazeera English, and for reasons other than money. -- Al Jazeera no longer airs extremist recordings unedited; it attempts to check facts with the USG before airing coverage of incidents involving the U.S. military, he said. -------------- COMMENTS -------------- -- Khanfar for some time has talked about Al Jazeera's "five-year plan." Perhaps it is finally getting underway. -- So far, Al Jazeera's efforts to restructure, to achieve profitablity, to foster professionalism, and to air only "newsworthy" segments of extremist tapes have produced only incremental improvements to Al Jazeera's various broadcast elements: for example, straight news, talk shows, breaking news, and correspondents' reports. -- Al Jazeera's desire to break into new markets through subsidiaries in several languages may force Al Jazeera to avoid its sometimes inflammatory reporting and commentary, especially reporting by Al Jazeera's extensive network of foreign correspondents, who operate out of more than 45 offices around the world. -------------- Restructuring Al Jazeera -------------- ¶1. (C) James Glassman, Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, began his August 26 meeting with Al Jazeera (AJ) Director General Wadah Khanfar by asking if Khanfar had a plan for AJ to become commercially independent of the Qatari Government. Khanfar affirmed that it was "the goal of any network" to have financial independence, but that he was "happy with the Amir because he does not interfere" in AJ's operations. ¶2. (C) Qatar "does not support Al Jazeera out of charity," he stated, and it "understands that Al Jazeera has given Qatar great name recognition in the Arab world." AJ has caused bilateral problems for Qatar, but "countries such as Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt are beginning to understand that they have to separate the Qatar government from Al Jazeera in their minds." ¶3. (C) With regard to profitability, Khanfar said he was encouraged by an advertizing deal recently concluded with Saudi business giant Abdul Lateef Jameel, noting that "Saudi Arabia represents 65 percent of the regional advertising market, and we need them to achieve profitability." ¶4. (C) Khanfar stated, however, that subsidiaries -- not advertising -- would constitute the network's primary profit center, and that AJ has launched a five-year restructuring plan with this in mind. ¶5. (C) Khanfar emphasized that "our main brand is news and we want to keep that separate so as not to compromise our standards." But he added that much of the network's focus would be on creating new subsidiaries, such as AJ channels in Turkish and other languages, and on strengthening current products, such as AJ's four sports channels and the documentary service. Outsourcing of human resource DOHA 00000633 002 OF 003 functions, finding alternate broadcasting arrangements to bring down satellite fees, and integrating AJ Arabic and English bureaus would constitute another major part of AJ's restructuring. ¶6. (C) U/S Glassman asked if restructuring would bring with it increased professionalism among AJ reporters. Khanfar responded by saying, "As long as the region is in chaos, we will have problems" such as the recent flap over former Samir Quntar, the Lebanese prisoner recently released by Israel. (NOTE: AJ's Beirut bureau chief threw a party for Quntar and was reprimanded by the AJ editorial board.) This is why, Khanfar said, AJ established a quality assurance department to monitor broadcasts and report violations of the AJ code of ethics, established in 2004, directly to him. The AJ editorial board meets every month to review these reports and issue statements on professional standards. "When a mistake is made," said Khanfar, "we go on the air immediately to correct it." -------------- RELATIONS WITH USG BETTER -------------- ¶7. (C) Khanfar told U/S Glassman that AJ's relationship with the USG was "much better than before," when senior officials accused AJ of promoting violence. While he confessed to "missing Donald Rumsfeld" for the ratings boost that he provided, Khanfar said the USG's "attacks" created a negative atmosphere for AJ in the United States, which has made it difficult to gain access to cable providers. Khanfar shared that AJ was willing to pay for access, but that all the major providers had declined "for fear of being pursued legally by groups that think we support terrorism." ¶8. (C) Arab governments had also taken advantage of the USG's stance against AJ to crack down on the network in their countries, Khanfar asserted, and are increasingly taking action due to AJ's focus on human rights and democracy in the Arab world. "We have never seen ourselves as part of a reform movement," Khanfar said, adding, "we are just journalists, but we believe strongly in protecting the peoples' right to knowledge." -------------- AJ ENGLISH: THE NEW FLAGSHIP -------------- ¶9. (C) Moving to the topic of AJ English, Khanfar said he expected it to eventually overtake AJ Arabic as the network's "global brand," emphasizing on two occasions that AJ English is "not the voice of the Arabs," but that "since a lot of news is generated from this region, we are more capable" than other networks "of understanding it." AJ's overall strength, he said, "comes from being based in the global south." -------------- AQ TAPES NO LONGER AIRED UNEDITED -------------- ¶10. (C) Asked about AJ's policy with regard to tapes received from extremist groups, Khanfar echoed comments made to a recent staffdel (reftel),noting that a process was in place within AJ to determine the proper use of any extremist tape that is received. ¶11. (C) The tape is first reviewed by three senior editors, who then identify any newsworthy items, he said. Any airing of the extremist tape must be followed by a discussion with an expert in order to "put it into perspective" for the audience, and not allowed to stand alone. Unless there is news in it, like the killing of a senior leader, Khanfar said, the interest in a tape from Osama bin Laden or Ayman Zawahiri is "no longer there." Khanfar claimed that CNN and BBC followed the same standards with regard to extremists' messages. -------------- FACT CHECKING -------------- ¶12. (C) U/S Glassman told Khanfar that it was his policy to encourage State Department officials to engage with AJ, and that his military colleagues shared that view. Unfortunately, however, AJ still airs a certain amount of DOHA 00000633 003 OF 003 inaccurate information regarding incidents involving the United States. Glassman strongly urged Khanfar to "call and check the facts before going on air," to which Khanfar replied by claiming that it is AJ policy to call military spokesmen when AJ reports on an incident involving the military, but "most of the time, we get no response, so after 15 to 60 minutes, we usually make a decision to go on the air." ¶13. (U) U/S Glassman cleared this cable. LeBaron