LONDON: Al Jazeera Arabic has come under fire for 鈥渘ormalizing terrorism鈥� in its coverage of an attack on the French embassy in Burkina Faso.
Two attacks in the capital Ouagadougou, one of them targeting the French embassy, left 16 dead and at least 80 wounded last week. An affiliate of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of Cornerstone Global, a management consultancy focused on the Middle East, claims Al Jazeera reporting on the Burkina Faso terrorist attack was skewed.
鈥淎l Jazeera Arabic . . . refuses to call Al-Qaeda 鈥渢errorists,鈥� instead says 鈥渨hom authorities describe as terrorists,鈥� he tweeted. 鈥淐ommon with Al Jazeera normalizing terrorism in eyes of its readers.鈥�
抖阴短视频, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt cut ties with Qatar last June claiming the country supported international terror networks and that the Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcaster was a propaganda tool of that support.
Qatar and Al Jazeera deny the claims.
Abdellatif El-Menawy, an Egyptian media analyst, said the coverage of the attack served as a reminder that 鈥淎ljazeera has always been a platform for Al-Qaeda.鈥�
After the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US, Al Jazeera鈥檚 Arabic-language channel was accused of being a 鈥渕outhpiece鈥� for Osama bin Laden, because of its willingness to air Al-Qaeda video messages and what was perceived by some as an anti-American bias.
El-Menawy said that such content presented as 鈥渟coops鈥� in fact underscored its editorial agenda.
He said that the broadcaster had also 鈥渕ade excuses for other terrorist groups,鈥� in Libya, Egypt and Syria.
He added that the Doha-based network avoided describing groups such as Al-Qaeda as terrorists preferring to say that they have 鈥渂een described as terrorists.鈥�
Aljazeera declined to comment.