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Friends of AlJazeera Manifesto
Do not ask for whom the bell tolls
The bell is tolling for the press. A press requires freedom from editorial interference and from vested interests. H.L. Mencken quipped that "freedom of the press is limited to those who own one". Today, that seems less funny considering the strangle-hold that a small number of multi-national corporations have on the press. These multi-nationals use the press to push their own agendas. We are at a stage in history where corporate interests have overtaken the public interest.
Most democratic governments are complacent with this growing trend. Politicians realise that they have to thread carefully around the media moguls in order to be re-elected or to push through their policies. What used to be the fourth estate has now turned into a huge PR game.
Landlords and power-whores
If that wasn't bleak enough, imagine the press in the Middle-East. While Kuwait is busy locking up journalists, Tunisia is busy torturing them. This is all happening while Israel is busy killing foreign journalists and the newly "democratic" Iraq is banning them.
Mic check
While things are bad, there is hope. Indymedia, Adbusters and other grassroot movements have started to reclaim some of the press space hijacked by the corporations and politicians. Bloggers have shown that they can challenge the traditional press. One short-coming is that these avenues are frequented by those who seek them. These avenues will not reach the majority of people who work 9-5 jobs, who come home and watch the news over a TV dinner.
One station has managed to change all of that and provide a divergent voice in an increasingly convergent world. It has managed to capture the spirit of an independent press - AlJazeera. Something that started off as a novelty for a small oil-rich Gulf state has now turned into a bastion of hope for a main-stream free press. AlJazeera has managed to not only challenge the tunnel vision of Western press outlets, but has proved that a free press can exist in the Middle-East.
"The empire writes back"
AlJazeera is an anomaly. It's the first media company from the "third world" to break into the mainstream. It's an independent voice representing the other. Nearly every other major media outlet is speaking on behalf of the West. AlJazeera is a case of "the empire writing back". AlJazeera is the first significant challenge to Western hegemony and its monopoly on the truth. AlJazeera has given a voice to the voiceless.
Just as amazing is the fact that AlJazeera is independent. It's funded by a government but run as an private company. Even though it is run as a private company, it is not subjected to the same financial realities that other private companies are subjected to (such as making a profit or pleasing shareholders). This is one of those crazy realities that you are only likely to find in the Middle-East (like the AlJazeera head office being down the road from the US Military's Middle East command centre).
Why Friends of AlJazeera?
Journalism is in tatters and AlJazeera is trying to bring back some dignity to the profession. Doing this has not made AlJazeera many friends. Not only have they challenged the Western medias version of reality (which is based on what the corporations and politicians believe is in our best interest) but they have also challenged nearly every dictatorship in the Middle-East.
Tremendous pressure is being exerted on AlJazeera. Their offices have been bombed, their reporters censored, their bureaus shut down and their journalists killed. They still face an advertising boycott instigated by certain "royalty" (oh, and that's after the right-wingers have branded them as the mouth-piece of terrorists - our favourite is "Terror TV").
We think they need some friends.
That's where FoJ comes in. We are here to promote AlJazeera as a legitimate news source that not only advocates, but practices free, fair and impartial journalism. We're here to dispel the myths that AlJazeera is some sort of evil, violence-advocating, democracy hindering force in the Middle-East.
More than AlJazeera
We're here to promote a free press. While AlJazeera is important to us (we believe they're doing a kick-ass job), we know that keeping the press free requires a lot more. We're here to promote, support and instigate free press campaigns and initiatives. To promote debate around the role of the press and how citizens can get involved. We'd like to think of ourselves as a grassroots free speech activist network and a media think-tank (with a special focus on AlJazeera.)
But who are we?
FoJ was started by a group activists of media activists from around the world.
More importantly though, who are you? FoJ is a grassroots project. You are the grassroots. We are just here to provide tools to enable rapid and sustained growth.
