"Hvis frihed overhovedet betyder noget, så betyder det retten til at fortælle folk det, de ikke vil høre"

George Orwell

Qatar: Nye retningslinjer for Al-Jazeera

2. februar 2015 - Udkigsposten

Al Jazeeras hjemmeside

Direktøren for den engelsksprogede udgave af den arabiske nyhedskanal har udsendt et nyt direktiv. Nu skal kanalens tv-værter ikke længere bruge ord som ”terrorist,” ”militant,” eller ”islamist.”

De nye retningslinjer blev angiveligt udsendt af direktør for Al Jazeera English, Carlos van Meek, til alle kanalens medarbejdere. Det skriver National Review, der fik fingre i en lækket kopi.

Terrorangreb i Tripoli

E-mailen blev rundsendt kort efter et islamisk terrorangreb d. 27. januar. Målet for terrorangrebet var hotel i Libyens hovedstad Tripoli. Mindst 10 blev dræbt. En gruppe med tilknytning til ISIS tog ansvaret.

Al Jazeera English

Nyhedskanalen har base i Doha, Qatar. Den har regionale nyhedsstudier i New York og Washington D.C. Kanalen er vestlig i udtryk og form, men er ofte under anklage for at have skjulte dagsordner.

Vanskelige ord

”Til alle: Vi skal passe på hvilke ord vi bruger,” skrev van Meek. Det blev efterfulgt af en liste med ord redaktionernes ansatte skulle undgå. På listen stod ord som: "Terrorist, ekstremist, islamist, jihad, militant, kriger."

Terrorisme

Ved ”terrorisme/terrorister” skrev van Meek: ”Én mands terrorist er en anden mands frihedskæmper. Vi bruger ikke disse udtryk, medmindre det kan tilskrives en kilde/person.” 

Det har ikke været muligt at bekræfte e-mailens autenticitet. 

 

 

Dokumentation fra National Review

 

From: Carlos Van Meek

Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 10:06 AM

To: AJE-Newsdesk; AJE-Output; AJE-DC-Newsroom

Subject: Terrorists, Militants, Fighters and then some…

 

All: We manage our words carefully around here. So I’d like to bring to your attention some key words that have a tendency of tripping us up. This is straight out of our Style Guide. All media outlets have one of those. So do we. If you’d like to amend, change, tweak.. pls write to Dan Hawaleshka direct who is compiling the updates to the Style Guide and they will be considered based on merit. No mass replies to this email, pls.

 

 

EXTREMIST – Do not use. Avoid characterizing people. Often their actions do the work for the viewer. Could write ‘violent group’ if we’re reporting on Boko Haram agreeing to negotiate with the government. In other words, reporting on a violent group that’s in the news for a non-violent reason.

 

TERRORISM/TERRORISTS – One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. We will not use these terms unless attributed to a source/person.

 

ISLAMIST – Do not use. We will continue to describe groups and individuals, by talking about their previous actions and current aims to give viewers the context they require, rather than use a simplistic label.

 

NOTE: Naturally many of our guests will use the word Islamist in the course of their answers. It is absolutely fine to include these answers in our output. There is no blanket ban on the word.

JIHAD – Do not use the Arabic term. Strictly speaking, jihad means an inner spiritual struggle, not a holy war. It is not by tradition a negative term. It also means the struggle to defend Islam against things challenging it. Again, an Arabic term that we do not use.

FIGHTERS – We do not use words such as militants, radicals, insurgents. We will stick with fighters. However, these terms are allowed when quoting other people using them.

 

MILITANT – We can use this term to describe individuals who favour confrontational or violent methods in support of a political or social cause. For example, we can use the term to describe Norwegian mass-killer Andres Behring Breivik or Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. But please note: we will not use it to describe a group of people, as in ‘militants’ or ‘militant groups’ etc.

 

 

J. CARLOS VAN MEEK | HEAD OF OUTPUT | NEWS

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH

 

Kilder: National Review

Der er lukket for flere kommentarer til dette indlæg