AL JAZEERA CHIEF APPLIES FOR VISA, DISCUSSES IRAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L DOHA 000416

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/22/2025
TAGS: PREL KPAO IR QA
SUBJECT: AL JAZEERA CHIEF APPLIES FOR VISA, DISCUSSES IRAN
COVERAGE

Classified By: Ambassador Joseph E.LeBaron, for reasons 1.4 (b, d)

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(C) KEY POINTS
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-- On June 22, Al Jazeera Network Director General Wadah
Khanfar applied for a U.S. visa. During an office call with
Ambassador at the Embassy, Khanfar addressed the imbalance
between Al Jazeera's heavy coverage of Gaza in January and
its comparatively scanty coverage of Iran,s elections and
their aftermath.

-- Khanfar said coverage of Iran had been scanty because it
is difficult for journalists to operate in Iran. He asserted
that the Iranian Government "hates" Al Jazeera and does not
allow its correspondents to operate freely.

End Key Points


1. (SBU) Al Jazeera Director General Wadah Khanfar said Al
Jazeera's relationship with the Government of Iran (GOI) is
"antagonistic to say the least."


2. (C) He said doing business in Iran is difficult for all
journalists.
Al Jazeera had originally posted four international
correspondents and two permanent correspondents to Iran.
However, the Iranian government asked one of Al Jazeera's
correspondents assigned to cover the pre-election atmosphere
to stop filming. An Iranian government representative phoned
Khanfar and threatened that Al Jazeera's journalists would be
asked to leave the country if they continued to film.


3. (C) Khanfar said he gave his journalists permission to
continue filming for 18 hours. Shortly before the start of
the elections, according to Khanfar, the cameras of all four
temporary correspondents were confiscated, and Iran forced
them to leave the country. Al Jazeera's two permanent
correspondents remain under constant watch by the government
of Iran and do not have the same capacity to report now as
they did before the demonstrations.


4. (C) Khanfar said there were "technical" reasons at play in
Iran which were not an issue in Gaza, thus the difference in
coverage. For example, there is no satellite news gathering
cooperation in Iran; journalists there have to smuggle in
cell phone and camera equipment that usually gets confiscated
by Iranian authorities.


5. (C) Doing business in Iran is a constant "fight," Khanfar
said. It involves a lot of "shouting" to sway the Iranian
authorities. Gaza, on the other hand, could be covered in
totality owing to the ease of cooperation with other
satellite news agencies. Khanfar added that journalists
could move freely in Gaza, which was not the case in Iran
owing to Iranian intelligence,s surveillance of journalists
from arrival to departure. Had it not been for Twitter, said
Khanfar, the majority of news on the Iranian elections would
not have reached Al Jazeera.


6. (C) Khanfar believed that Iranian officials "hate" Al
Jazeera because of Al Jazeera's coverage of Iraq. In
Khanfar,s view, Iran believes that Al Jazeera was a
propaganda machine for Sunni Iraqis during the Iraq war and
was biased against the Iraqi Shias supported by Iran.
Khanfar went on to say that no Arab journalists at Al Jazeera
like Iran. On the contrary, they have strong sentiments
against Iran.


7. (C) Khanfar acknowledged that, compared to Gaza, the
coverage of Iran,s elections was scanty, but he emphasized
that Gaza, unlike Iran, was in war, which was not comparable
to elections. He further stressed that Al Jazeera's three
flagship talk shows all dedicated broadcasts to discussion of
the Iranian elections, and that the amount of discussion and
analysis on Al Jazeera outstripped that of Al Jazeera,s
Arabic language competitors, including Al Arabiya.


LeBaron