This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DOHA 000104 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/PD, NEA/ARP 
INFO NSC FOR ABRAMS, DOD/OSD FOR SCHENKER AND MATHENY 
LONDON FOR ARAB MEDIA OFFICE 
BAGHDAD FOR HOSTAGE WORKING GROUP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/30/2010 
TAGS: PREL KPAO QA ALJAZEERA
SUBJECT: ENTERING ITS TENTH YEAR, AL JAZEERA COVETS GLOBAL 
ROLE 
 
REF: A. 05 STATE 217718 
     ¶B. 05 DOHA 1765 
     ¶C. 05 DOHA 1803 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Chase Untermeyer, reasons 1.4 (b&d) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: PAO met 1/18 with Wadah Khanfar, Al Jazeera 
Managing Director, to discuss Ref A demarche and continuing 
USG concerns with Al Jazeera programming. Khanfar described a 
series of initiatives planned by Al Jazeera to mark its tenth 
anniversary year with a view to positioning itself on the 
global journalistic stage. Khanfar complied 1/19 with PAO's 
request to provide the Baghdad Hostage Group with a copy of 
the videotape showing American citizen kidnap victim hostage 
Jill Carroll with her captors. End summary. 
 
Continuing USG concerns with AJ programming 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) PAO met 1/18 with Wadah Khanfar, Al Jazeera Managing 
Director, to deliver the most recent DIA unclassified 
snippets and discuss Ref A demarche.  Khanfar said he had not 
yet received Ref A talking points (delivered 12/15 to ForMin 
Hamid bin Jassim by the Ambassador) from the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs. PAO summarized continuing USG concerns with 
the professionalism of Al Jazeera's news and talk show 
coverage, including the airing of terrorist-provided 
videotapes; the channel's failure to present a diverse range 
of opinions or to balance extremist views, in particular 
where coverage of events in Iraq is concerned; inaccurate 
reports on coalition military operations in Iraq; failure to 
adequately double-source on Iraqi reporting; failure to 
clearly identify sources; failure to run retractions; and 
continued use of inflammatory language. Khanfar promised a 
more detailed response to Ref A demarche and the latest 
unclassified snippets after he had had a chance to review 
 
SIPDIS 
them. Meanwhile, he said, he continues to be concerned about 
the USG's relatively recent insistence that Al Jazeera stop 
airing insurgent-provided videotapes altogether. He 
reiterated his previous insistence (Ref B) that Al Jazeera 
had agreed only to air judiciously-edited portions of such 
tapes and that he had never agreed to keep them off the air. 
 
Al Jazeera Turns Ten 
-------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) "This year is our tenth anniversary. We are planning 
many activities to globalize Al Jazeera's style and go 
international," said Khanfar. Among the initiatives planned 
are the following, he said. 
 
The International Board of Visitors 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (C) Khanfar said Al Jazeera has now established an 
international advisory body consisting of respected 
international journalism figures to assess and advise on Al 
Jazeera operations. (Note: The suggestion originated with 
former Ambassador Rick Burt of the Washington lobby firm of 
Barbour Griffith Rogers. End note.) The new body, to be known 
as the Al Jazeera International Board of Visitors, is due to 
arrive in Doha on February 3, having reviewed Al 
Jazeera-related material prior to their arrival. The group, 
which Khanfar said AJ envisions as playing an 
institutionalized international "quality assurance" role, 
will spend two days in consultation with the channel's staff 
in Doha and make its recommendations. The group will hold 
regular meetings on a three-monthly basis thereafter. 
According to a list provided by Al Jazeera's head of 
International and Media Relations (Canadian citizen Satnam 
Matharu), ten of the Board's proposed 15 members are: 
 
¶1. Frank Sesno, former CNN Washington Bureau Chief, now 
professor of public policy and communication at George Mason 
University. 
¶2. Richard Burt, senior adviser to the Washington Center for 
Strategic International Studies (CSIS), former U.S. 
Ambassador and former New York Times correspondent. 
¶3. Christine Ockrent, producer and anchor of France 3 
Television's weekly current affairs program, France Europe 
Express. 
¶4. Josef Jofee, publisher-editor of the German Weekly Die 
Zeit. 
¶5. Andrew Neil, former BBC journalist, chief executive of The 
Spectator. 
¶6. Yoichi Funabashi, Foreign Affairs Columnist for the 
Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun. 
¶7. Allister Sparks, former editor of the South African 
newspapers the Rand Daily Mail and the Sunday Express, 
founder of the South African Institute for Advancement of 
Journalism. 
¶8. Enrique Santos Calderon, Editor of the Colombian newspaper 
El Tiempo. 
¶9. Fahmy Howeidi, columnist and deputy editor in chief of the 
Egyptian Al Ahram newspaper. 
¶10. Joseph Samaha, Editor in Chief of the As-Safir newspaper, 
former Beirut manager of Al Hayat newspaper. 
 
(The complete document with member bios has been emailed as a 
PDF document to NEA/ARPI Shawn Thorne). 
The Second Al Jazeera Forum 
--------------------------- 
¶5. (C) Khanfar said AJ's second annual forum is scheduled to 
be held in Doha Jan 31 thru Feb 2 and is entitled: "Defending 
Freedom, Defining Responsibility." According to Khanfar, more 
than 250 professional journalists have been invited from 
Asia, Europe, the USA and the Middle East. (Fox, CNN, ABC and 
NBC are among the US invitees, he said.) The themes listed in 
the forum advertising seem to have global, rather than 
regional, appeal. For example, one panel is entitled: "World 
Media: Building Walls or Pulling Them Down?" and another, 
"Media and Power: Democracy versus Dictatorship."  One panel, 
"Al Jazeera in the Mirror" will take "a critical look at Al 
Jazeera" and at "the so-called 'Al Jazeera Effect' and how 
satellite television has changed the way information is 
disseminated. It will also look at the soon-to-be launched 
English-language channel, Al Jazeera International." (Note 
for Telesur watchers: Among those expected to attend, 
according to Matharu, is Andres Izarra, the head of the South 
American channel.) Khanfar and Matharu urged PAO to attend 
the conference. 
 
 
Al Jazeera Training Center expands its programming 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶6. (C) The Al Jazeera Training Center will keep in step with 
this 10th-anniversary mode of expansion and 
internationalization, said Khanfar. The courses will be 
expanded and upgraded. Instead of short-term courses measured 
in days or weeks, three-month, six-month and one-year courses 
will now be offered by the training center. The one-year 
courses in particular will focus on university graduates, 
who, despite their technical journalism training, often lack 
political awareness, he said. The Training Center will seek 
to offer in-depth courses to such graduates focusing on the 
philosophical, historical and political aspects of their job. 
PAO asked about the trainers for these courses. Khanfar 
replied that the majority of the trainers currently come from 
the Thomson school of journalism in the UK (Note: as 
discussed Ref C. End note.). He said Al Jazeera had begun to 
develop a relationship with the Missouri School of Journalism 
with an eye to signing a memorandum of understanding with 
them (Ref C). He said the school's Dean visited Doha and 
plans were fairly advanced to sign the MOU to implement the 
expanded course offerings, when the school suddenly pulled 
back and told AJ that given "the current atmosphere" and the 
connotations attached to the Al Jazeera name, it might be 
best to hold back on cementing the relationship between the 
Missouri School of Journalism. 
 
Khanfar provides copy of hostage tape 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (C) Following the 1/17 airing by Al Jazeera of a tape 
showing American citizen hostage Jill Carroll in captivity in 
Baghdad, PAO reiterated the USG position that such tapes 
should not be aired. Khanfar replied that Al Jazeera has said 
from the beginning it would continue to air such tapes but 
only in edited versions, as it did 1/17. He noted that Al 
Jazeera continued to broadcast its condemnation of the 
kidnapping and to call for the release of Carroll and would 
continue to broadcast interviews with individuals calling for 
her release during the course of the day. PAO asked Khanfar 
for a copy of the tape, noting that Embassy Baghdad could use 
the information possibly to help save Carroll's life. Khanfar 
hesitated and said, "We have refused every request like this, 
but let me see what I can do. I have to get some permissions 
first."  A copy of the tape was passed to PAO by AJ on the 
morning of 1/19. 
 
Comment 
------- 
¶8. (C) In pursuing its global ambitions, Al Jazeera has been 
quick to take advantage of the wide international media 
support it garnered in the wake of the Nov 22 UK Daily Mirror 
story alleging that in April 2004 President Bush had proposed 
bombing Al Jazeera's Doha headquarters to Prime Minister Tony 
Blair. (Note: The story has continued to play strongly on Al 
Jazeera and in the local media, as the channel pursues its 
efforts to obtain a copy of the classified UK government 
memorandum allegedly containing details of the exchange. 
Khanfar confirmed to PAO 1/18 that AJ hired a UK law firm in 
early January to continue to pursue the matter. End note.) 
Following the publication of the Daily Mirror story, Khanfar 
traveled to London claiming he sought the truth about the 
alleged conversation from the British government. Although 
the UK government proved unresponsive, Khanfar attracted 
support for AJ's position among British and international 
media by organizing various well-publicized press events, 
including a discussion seminar he co-hosted with the Daily 
Mirror at the London Press Club. Khanfar is clearly using 
this support to further his vision of an internationalized 
AJ. Another element in his favor is the establishment of Al 
Jazeera International, the English version of the channel, 
due to be launched later this year. Although there are 
reports of tension between the staffs of Al Jazeera Arabic 
and Al Jazeera International, the standing up of AJI, with 
its growing list of big-name media recruits from all parts of 
the world, has certainly added a much wider international 
scope to the Al Jazeera brand name. Al Jazeera Arabic 
presently has a reported estimated viewership of between 40 
and 50 million and targets primarily Arabs, who represent 
about 18 percent of the Muslim world. AJI, with hubs planned 
in Doha, Washington, London and Kuala Lumpur, hopes to appeal 
to the English-speaking remainder of the Muslim world. 
Together, if their joint vision works out as planned, they 
will represent a pivotal element in US relations with both 
the Arab and the Muslim worlds. 
 
Comment continued 
----------------- 
 
¶9. (C) Al Jazeera's approach to the kidnapping of Christian 
Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll seemed to turn on the 
fact that she is a fellow journalist. The approach fits in 
with AJ's apparent new strategy of positioning itself as a 
central player in the global stage of journalism. AJ's airing 
of the tape was restrained and was accompanied by a 
forthright condemnation of such acts against journalists 
worldwide. We feel it is also noteworthy that AJ has 
continued to air appeals for Carroll's release (including, 
most recently, an appeal from Jim Carroll, the journalist's 
father) and continues its iteration of the "solidarity among 
journalists" theme. Khanfar's decision to share a copy of the 
tape (which AJ has never done before) may also be a 
reflection of the importance he places on this theme. It will 
be interesting to see in what way AJ's approach will differ 
in future cases where the kidnap victim is not a fellow 
journalist. 
UNTERMEYER