VZCZCXRO5376
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHDO #1745/01 3481312
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 141312Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY DOHA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5925
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1005
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 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