Ibrahim Helal, editor-in-chief of the Al-Jazeera television network, spoke Wednesday in Love Auditorium about the Arabic network's news coverage and the challenges it faces trying to present truthful, objective information.
"We have to give decision makers the information they need to make their decisions," Helal said. "For years, people of the Middle East didn't have the information they needed."
Miriam Cooke, the moderator and professor of Asian and African languages and literature, introduced Helal and talked about the network's importance to the Arab world.
"Jazeera has in a very short space of time been able to overcome huge barriers to bring controversy and opinion into the living rooms," she said.
Helal cautioned that Al-Jazeera is only able to report part of the truth, due partially to a lack of government transparency and a need to temper its coverage in order to maintain its audience.
"At least we have 70 percent or 60 percent of the truth," Helal said. "In the Arabic world, it is good to support it."
He emphasized the difficulty in reporting on a multifaceted issue like the Israel-Palestinian conflict, where different segments of the audience expect different types of coverage.
He said this is reflected in the network's terminology.
For example, Al-Jazeera refers to Palestinian terrorists as "martyrs," because to call them "terrorists" or even "killed people" would cause the network to lose its entire audience, he said.
In response to the question, "How can you justify calling somebody who walks in and kills children a Omartyr?'" Helal argued this practice is not exclusive to Al-Jazeera, suggesting that American news coverage is often biased by not calling Palestinians killed in conflict with Israelis "civilians."
"You have to think about why people assassinated by Israelis are Ogunmen' or Oterrorists,'" Helal said. "Why don't we call them Ocivilians?'"
These criticisms of the Western media elicited applause from the audience.
Helal also discussed some recent controversy between Al-Jazeera and Western networks, but said it still has strong relationships with several Western news outlets, including CNN.
Addressing anti-Americanism in the Arab world, Helal said that although America has historically helped Europe, in the Middle East, the United States is doing the opposite, by supporting what he characterized as oppressive regimes and working for American self-interest. This often conflicts with what Arabs consider their own best interest, he said.
At the same time, Helal said the Arab world is not monolithic in its anti-Americanism and that some of the problem originates with Arab governments.
"Many Arab government are using anti-Americanism as a scapegoat," said Helal. "[The] real root of terrorism is their way of ruling people."
Helal also talked about the way Al-Jazeera interacts with Arab governments who are often opposed to freedom of speech and the difficulty of getting information from these governments.
"We are pressuring them using our own instrument, the media," Helal said. "We are widely trusted in the Arab world--your weapon is your audience."
He said the network has had its offices closed in several countries, including Kuwait and Libya. Al-Jazeera is currently deciding whether to close its office in Damascus, due to "no information" coming from the Syrian government.
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