The Al Jazeera Spotlight

Al Jazeera's coverage of the events in Egypt has been electrifying, intense, and at times highly dramatic. When Hosni Mubarak stepped down from the podium last night -- at the end of a speech in which he deceived himself into thinking that he could continue to hang on to his throne -- Al Jazeera cut immediately to the protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo. Instead of going back to its studios to get the snap analyses of guest political analysts (as other Arab networks were busy doing), Al Jazeera let the street protesters themselves respond to Mubarak's words. The network's cameras panned over the vast crowds in the Square and, accompanied by total silence from its news anchors, Al Jazeera broadcast directly the chants of the protesters for nearly ten uninterrupted minutes. As the crowds yelled in defiance, rejecting Mubarak's concessions and calling for an immediate end to his regime, Al Jazeera just let the cameras roll. It was a dramatic few minutes.

Broadly speaking, much of what's being said about Al Jazeera's pivotal role is correct. The network has galvanized the Arab street, given life to the demonstrations, and undoubtedly helped bring the uprising in Tunisia to the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, and beyond. Its coverage has given voice to the Egyptian protesters, and provided virtually 24-hour non-stop reporting of events as they unfold. That said, some Western commentators are taking their enthusiasm for Al Jazeera a bit far in assuming that the network will play a similarly positive role if protests in the region continue to spread. It's far from clear that Al Jazeera will be so gung-ho in its coverage of anti-government protests if the location were, say, Syria or Saudi Arabia. Or Qatar, for that matter, where the network is based. Al Jazeera blatantly refrains from criticism of a number of regimes and is quick to provide critical reporting of others. Egypt has long been the subject of some of the network's most critical coverage, so it's no surprise that Al Jazeera has embraced this story of anti-government ire. But Syria, on the other hand, were the protests to spread there, might find that Al Jazeera's coverage was much less sympathetic towards any type of protest movement.

There are various reasons why Al Jazeera is lopsided and selective in its coverage. Some of it has to do with the Qatari monarchy's own diplomatic interests. A decade ago, Al Jazeera used to annoy the Saudi regime fairly regularly, for example, until Riyadh starting making trouble with the Qatari government. Needless to say, after the local Qatari authorities stepped in, the TV network softened the nature of its reporting towards Saudi Arabia. Its selectively critical coverage is also linked to its own editorial bias: Al Jazeera is generally hesitant to shine a critical spotlight on states and political organizations that it views as a part of the Islamist "resistance" against Israel. This explains its sympathetic reporting towards Syria, Hamas, and Hezbollah. It also provides some insight into why its coverage of the PA, Fatah, Egypt, and other Western-leaning states tends to be so hostile.

Again, though, the point is the following: that despite the extremely important role that Al Jazeera has played in Tunisia and Egypt, it is not a given that the network will continue to be at the forefront of propelling future protest movements in the region. Al Jazeera has its own editorial line, and it is also restricted by its Qatari patrons. The network was very late in covering the initial demonstrations in Egypt, for example, which some analysts speculate may have been because Mubarak's government cut some sort of deal with Qatari authorities. Or perhaps it was because the Qatari monarchy was worried about its own skin -- that another burgeoning protest movement, so soon after Tunisia, might eventually encourage an uprising back at home. Whatever the case, this is not to say that Al Jazeera won't cover additional uprisings in the Arab world -- the network most certainly will, or it risks losing credibility (not to mention market share.) But it is quite possible that, in countries like Syria or Saudi Arabia, about which the network has historically tended to give more favorable coverage, that its reporting will be much less sympathetic towards the ambitions of the protesters.