In Iraq, Al Jazeera Navigates Minefield of Press Freedom

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-aljazeera31jul31.story
THE WORLD
In Iraq, Al Jazeera Navigates Minefield of Press Freedom
By Megan K. Stack
Times Staff Writer

July 31, 2004

BAGHDAD — <snip>For Al Jazeera's journalists, who wrestle with how to use the exclusive and often bloody footage, the tapes pose the latest in a string of credibility tests. The current rules go like this: Show the hostages. Don't show beheadings. The slaughter of two Pakistani hostages this week, for example, was deemed too gory — Al Jazeera broke the news, but kept the pictures to itself.<snip>

Alongside the conflict in Iraq, Al Jazeera's viewers are witnessing a second drama. The Arab channel is coming of age and struggling for respect while covering a war opposed by the Arab world — and fending off a round-the-clock blitz of impassioned criticism from all sides.

In the midst of the mayhem, the young, influential and controversial Qatar-based news organization is setting its sights beyond the Middle East, breaking into English-language news and striving for a place among international institutions such as the BBC and CNN.

"My country is collapsing, and my job is to watch the collapse," correspondent Audday Katib said. A government engineer under Saddam Hussein, Katib landed a job with Al Jazeera months after the U.S.-led invasion.

"Do you buy this idea that the U.S. came to bring freedom to Iraq? I don't buy it, but it's not our job to say that," Katib said, lounging on a couch in the Baghdad bureau on a 115-degree day, an air conditioner humming behind him and a Cameron Diaz movie playing on the television. "We let the people say it, but we never say it, because we are neutral."<snip>