Wadah Khanfar - Former Director General, Al Jazeera HARDtalk

dangerous dog to be out in the public. Those are the headlines. It

is time for HARDtalk. The satellite TV station Al Jazeera is credited

with giving ordinary Arabs a platform from which to challenge

their government. Day-by-day it has been covering the dramatic events

of the Arab Spring using the latest technology on both its Arabic and

English channels. Is it selective in whom it criticises? My guest is

Wadah Khanfar, he was the boss of Al Jazeera for ten years. Was the

coverage biased on his watch? Why did he leave Al Jazeera in the

midst of the biggest news event in the Arab world for decades? Wadah

Khanfar, welcome to HARDtalk. Has the coverage of the Arab Spring

been biased? I do not think so. They have done a fantastic job

covering the Arab Spring since it started. The coverage is continuing.

I think Al Jazeera is doing very well in following the developments

and evolutions. There is a criticism that Al Jazeera's

coverage has focused more on Egypt, Libya, Syria, downplaying the

unrest in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Evidence on the ground it defines

what coverage you put on the screen. The Bahraini up rising did not

evolve into a revolution like what happened in Egypt and Libya and so

on. Second, the situation in all of these countries, if you take Egypt,

it was central in the way that you look at the Middle East.

Unfortunately in places like Bahrain there has been sectarian

divide. The issue should not become as prominent as the Egyptian or

The criticism that Al Jazeera pulled back on coverage at home.

The President of a human rights group said that the programme did

not do enough to cover the event. He said they will only question

governmental people. We did do that very well. The Bahraini government

is more upset with cell than anyone else. -- one with Al Jazeera --

with Al Jazeera. Somebody who has studied the coverage of middle

Eastern events, a senior at the Washington Institute, says Al

Jazeera is on the line, and the coverage of Bahrain is a example of

poor reportage. There were glaring omissions on your part. This is not

true. We covered Bahrain, developing and evil thing at the

same time. There was more interest in what was happening in Egypt --

of -- evolving. But you did not cover certain events? Going into

Bahrain was covered on Al Jazeera. We have never tried to take

coverage amounts of our programme. -- out of the power programme.

you are saying he did cover it? very professionally. Was there but

political pressure on you do not cover it? Last battle. What about

the process in the eastern provinces? -- not at all --

protests. There were four young people who were killed during the

protests. Al Jazeera Arabic did cover the story but just said what

the authorities had say, which was the young people had been caught in

crossfire when security forces had fired. You did not question it.

That is an example of how Al Jazeera did not cover the unrest in

the area. Until I left, the policies the show is following and

I hope is continuing to follow, is that when any story happens it

should be covered without any political agenda. This is what we

have been doing for 15 years. This particular story, I am not so aware

of the way that we covered it. reasons I say this to you is that

it is easy for Al Jazeera to cover the up people's in Libya. True, it

was an international co-operation - - our peoples. -- upheavals. These

were countries where it was easy to cover the crisis. But in your own

country, there were other issues. The friendship between President

Bashar al-Assad and the government was very close. The relationship

between Pixar and Emma was instrumental -- que -- Qatar. --

and the government. There was an exchange of investment

opportunities. During the revolution, this country supported

the public. Other countries were reluctant to support the uprising.

So it is fair to say that when someone like the American

ambassador says Al Jazeera Arabic news channel will continue to be an

instruments of the influence of the government. He said this in 2009.

He has his own way of thinking. During his stay in this country, he

was trying to locates Al Jazeera with the Americans. It has never

been a tour of the country's foreign policy. -- a tool. But was

it an indirect tool? That is nothing. So, when you were in

charge, the Qatari goverment had no influence. We listen to many

countried. -- countries. Many times the leader of the goverment was

unhappy with how we covered things. There was a centre set up for the

freedom of the media. An ex-member of Doctors Without Borders was

appointed to lead it. He left because he said there was no

freedom of speech accepted in the country. Al Jareeza was adopting

professional standard. -- standards. Al Jazeera has had very

professional reporting. You were never uncomfortable working for the

network when it was funded by the monarchy there? Like the BBc, it is

publicly funded. The BBC is funded by the taxpayer. The monarchy fund

Al Jazeera outright. Qatar was under fire for many years.

Democracy is eventually going to be everywhere. The governments are

trying to make reforms. Even in Qatar? Next year they will have

What do you make of that? I think Al Jazeera has grown in the past

year is from one TV station to more than 20 TV stations. Al Jazeera

started with 200 people to up to 2,500 people. How does it look when

you have appointed this member of the royal family as part of the

news team. That is not an issue, the issue is what is he going to do

in this organisation. You said that Qatar is moving towards greater

freedom of speech and democracy, you are a Palestinian, someone who

worked as a war correspondent, people understood that you were in

the position you were in Al Jazeera, now they have this little knowing

royal who is heading Al Jazeera, how will that it received? It is

not always necessary to have the Director General as a journalist.

In many networks, the chief executive is involved in issues

related to marketing and administration and so on. To judge

the new general director we should see... Regardless of what happens

in November and the elections. Protests in Saudi Arabia were not

covered. Why did you leave Al Jazeera? You leave in the midst of

the events, September, the revelations were in full swing,

what made you go? I have been there for some time. In my opinion I have

given and achieved... I realised that there is some kind of new

force in the region. How could you leave, the best stories in

journalism, Libya was up in the air, how could you leave at that time?

felt that at the peak of the coverage of the Egyptian revolution

has led to a new reality in the new Arab world. I thought I could

become part of helping the these states. Did you choose to go

of your own three well? Yes, I did. -- free will. After eight years of

me staying as a Director General, I am not going to continue. After

that any Director General will start repeating himself. What Al

Jazeera has achieved in 15 years, could be wiped out in 15 days, is

that not a sign you are quite worried about your legacy? Actually,

I said that many times when I was Director General. I believe it. I

believe the most important thing in Al Jazeera is independence. If that

is not going to be maintained, Al Jazeera will lose credibility. This

statement actually, it is not new. People love Al Jazeera and they

watched Al Jazeera because they are providing them with something that

cannot be found on state TV stations. If Al Jazeera does not

maintain the professional standards, I think it will lose... You say

independence, but I will give you one example. We got this through

WikiLeaks, a cable sent by a US ambassador to Qatar in 2005,

described a US embassy official, asking you to tone down your

coverage of the Iraq war because your ex -- showing explicit images

of children and women. That is a trademark of Al Jazeera, you show

more than what we do in the BBC, he responded with a sigh, you said it

you would remove the few peace. But in a few days, because if you did

it immediately it would be two of the has. More than 420 cables

breath -- where -- were sent, in all of them the Americans asked us

to do something and we refused. In regards to this, 0 Al Jazeera made

a mistake. You made a mistake. Jazeera made a mistake in covering

the story. With our code of conduct if we make a mistake we should

remove it for starve that is exactly what we did. That policy

was with the relationship with America, China, any country in the

world. Whoever comes to us and protests against a story, if it is

limited in as far as our professional standards are

concerned, we will remove the story. But if it is to enhance their image,

we will have... Isn't this what it is about? The images inflamed

passions and made people, and bold and against the Americans the...

That story you are talking about was a particular incident.

caved in to pressure. Not at all. Americans or not, it is because we

respect professional standards. The Americans pressurised us hundreds

of times, it was one incident where they were right and we were wrong.

This is a Certificate of professionalism. After 2005, read

the Americans happy with the Al Jazeera coverage? They are now.

Hillary Clinton has applauded the year. Talking about WikiLeaks, one

clear trademark of 0 Al Jazeera is that you cover the Palestinian-

Israeli dispute. The fact of the matter is, the PLO was extremely

upset with the coverage that you are stationed gave three the

WikiLeaks story trying to imply that the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas, Brecht

Ho yin to the Israelis in some way. He describes it as a smear campaign

by Al Jazeera. -- toadying. You champion the Palestinian cause, yet

at the same time you are undermining the Palestinian

leadership, Mahmoud Abbas was negotiating. We are not championing

any cause. The issue that Al Jazeera got exclusively, the

complete file of the negotiations between the Palestinians and

Israelis. Thousands of pages. After going through it and summarising it

and understanding it, we decide the public should know what is

happening. We did cover it through intensive coverage. It was with co-

operation with the Guardian. The issue was, it was a Certificate for

Al Jazeera, we did one of our finest jobs as investigative

journalists. It gave a proper understanding of what is happening.

You said you took it all out of context. He complained to Ofcom, we

lost the case. Not only that, Ofcom, in its ruling, said Al Jazeera

adopted the highest possible standards, there was nothing that

Mahmoud Abbas should be upset... Middle East is known for its lack

of freedom, we have now seen the Arab Spring, do you think it is

going to change quite soon and for the better that the Arab ordinary

person will find their voice? has already started. When it

started we had no choice. The new generation, the youth of the Arab

world have taken the lead. In my opinion, what will happen in the

next few years is the transition to stable democracy, that were not

only changed the political landscape but the social and

economic landscape and the future of the Arab world is going to be