 |
|
Arab
journalists deliver a protest note to Al Jazeera’s press center
cubicle at Arab summit |
BEIRUT,
March 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Around 150 Arab journalists
covering the Arab summit protested Tuesday, March 26, against efforts by
Qatari-based Al-Jazeera television channel to organize an interview with
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, news agencies reported.
The
head of the Al-Jazeera team at the summit, Said Shouly, told Agence
France-Presse (AFP) that his company in Doha obtained Sharon's
permission two days ago to arrange an interview but then cancelled it
when his office imposed too many conditions.
He
announced that the decision to cancel the interview had been taken as up
to 150 Arab journalists gathered in protest outside his makeshift office
at the summit press center.
"We
cancelled the interview because the Israelis imposed conditions,"
such as on the type of questions that could be asked, he told AFP later.
"We've
been trying for a few months to interview him," he said. "He
sent his approval two days ago."
Doha
Shams, a journalist with Lebanon's daily newspaper, As-Safir, said she
was protesting the interview's timing, complaining that Sharon wanted to
steal the limelight of the summit while trying to prevent Palestinian
president Yasser Arafat from attending.
"He
is trying to refuse Arafat's right to move around - an international
right - so we're not going to give him the professional and objective
right to express himself," she said.
She
said a total of 150 Arab journalists signed a petition against granting
the interview, which Shouly said would have been done via satellite
connection between Sharon's office and Al-Jazeera headquarters in Doha,
the Qatari capital.
In
Doha, presenter Mohammad Krishen said, "we apologize for the
cancellation of the interview," with Sharon. “Israeli officials
sought to impose technical conditions ... which our management
refused," he added.
Palestinian
information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo had also urged the satellite
station not to give Sharon a forum. "The televised interview with
Sharon, who is personally behind the continued aggression against the
Palestinian people, should be cancelled," Abed Rabbo said in a
statement.
Speaking
to Al Jazeera channel, Saed Eraekat laughingly told them: “Now you
know how it’s like to negotiate with Sharon. You know our suffering,
they never commit to anything they decide on.”
It
would have been Sharon's first interview with Al-Jazeera, which is
watched throughout the Arab world and won fame for exclusive reports
from Afghanistan as the United States began bombing in October 2001.
In
January 2001, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak was interviewed
by Al Jazeera along with three Palestinian officials.
