The use of social networking sites by Al Jazeera to relay information about demonstrations in Tunisia is raising questions about journalistic professionalism.
Al-Jazeera coverage of the Sidi Bouzid protests is causing controversy across Tunisia, with some citizens praising the Qatari network for filling a media void and others slamming the news reports as biased and unprofessional.
The pan-Arab satellite TV network began airing reports as soon as the crisis erupted on December 18th, when Tunisian police clashed with Sidi Bouzid youths. The demonstration against unemployment began when a young merchant set himself on fire after authorities seized his goods. The protests have since spread to several other cities.
According to Chamber of Councillors speaker and Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) member Abd Allah Kallel, Al Jazeera was "hostile" to Tunisia. Speaking on Saturday (January 1st), Kallel said that the channel took advantage of the protests to completely disregard the ethics of the press profession and depend on the method of composition and misinformation to spread lies and slanders against Tunisia and its gains.
Tunisian opposition parties also rejected Al Jazeera's reporting, considering the coverage to be non-objective and tending to exaggerate events.
The Green Party for Progress (PVP) denounced the "the approach of prejudice and false allegations adopted by Al Jazeera in its coverage of the recent events in Tunisia." The party also said in its December 24th statement that "the channel was deliberate in exaggerating events, focusing on repeated broadcasting for several days of pictures of unreliable source, and depending on composite pictures in order to put these events beyond their real dimensions and to deceive people into believing some facts that depend on instigation."
Al Jazeera's coverage involved a lot of exaggeration and misinformation due to its few sources, according to al-Khabeer journalist Najia Ghenimi, adding that the channel's "Every Angle/Every Side" slogan was absent in its dealing with events in Tunisia.
Ghenimi also said that Al Jazeera took advantage of the Tunisian media blackout and the lack of in-depth and comprehensive coverage by Tunisian media outlets of these events to attract the attention of Tunisian and Arab viewers in an attempt to expand its media presence.
"In my opinion, this was a reaction by Al Jazeera to denying them an office in Tunisia and to blocking their website," she concluded.
In its coverage of the protests in its news bulletins and talk shows, Al Jazeera depended on videos captured by mobile phones and posted on different social networking websites. Some critics of the network claimed that the new media methods lack of professionalism and credibility in dealing with events.
The Unionist Democratic Union party deplored "Al Jazeera's reliance in its coverage of events on content of videos and pictures posted on the social networking website Facebook without doing much examination and investigation and without verifying the authenticity of published content." The party also said that "the channel in this way has committed several professional violations, especially about the size of protests and their correct background, exaggerating their real size on the ground."
Other journalists, however, praised the channel's reporting techniques as groundbreaking.
Al Jazeera created a new method in its coverage of events, by depending on pictures and videos posted on social networking websites, al-Arab journalist Abdelatif Jaballah said, adding that the channel's coverage of the demonstrations was based on images captured by eyewitnesses.
"Today, we can't deny that the social networking websites have become the main source of news for journalists and media outlets, given that they publish news with pictures and sounds without any disfiguration of facts and events," Jaballah said.
However, his colleague Manel Abdi believes that Al Jazeera crossed the line and started to explain events "in the way it likes", particularly by exaggerating coverage of the events in Tunisia.
Some Tunisians interviewed by Magharebia said that Al Jazeera's coverage represents the way they see events taking place in their own country, especially since Tunisian media outlets are not covering the demonstrations.
"Al Jazeera has covered the events as they are, supported by pictures and sounds," Hassouna Badri told Magharebia. "Its reports covered most of the protests and demonstrations that were staged in Sidi Bouzid and some other Tunisian cities. In my opinion, the channel was successful in communicating the news on these events to its viewers."
Badri added that critics of the network were trying to hide facts, saying Al Jazeera prevented authorities from censoring the demonstrations. Some wish to "perpetuate the discourse that everything is good and is making progress", she said.
"We shouldn't be ashamed of the social problems which we are facing; rather, we should try to get past and fix them. We should also be clear about the size of responsibility rather than blame others," Badri said.
On the other hand, some other Tunisians described Al Jazeera's coverage of Tunisia events as harsh and said that the channel's coverage of Tunisian affairs lacks objectivity, integrity and professionalism.
"It's not reasonable that this Arab channel, which has attracted the largest viewership in the Arab world, cover events in this horrible way, making Tunisia and other Arab Maghreb countries, which are all witnessing amazing development experiences, its main concern while at the same time avoid any coverage of events in the Gulf countries," Fadhila Messadi said.
In addition, the executive bureau of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists condemned Al Jazeera's resort to exaggeration, fabrication and disfiguration.
In their December 28th statement, the union also said that the blackout of information in Tunisian media outlets has opened the door for interpretations and rumours in the absence of accurate and objective coverage of the protests.
© Magharebia.com 2011
