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From: Yacob Zecharias (yacobzech@yahoo.co.uk)
Date: Sun Feb 21 2010 - 07:13:53 EST
The recent interview conducted by Jane Dutton with the President is a classic example of journalistic ignorance. I presume that Ms Dutton was given this assignment because she was an African and certainly not because of her journalistic prowess.
Ms Dutton showed her extreme ignorance of Eritrea in her opening statement when she claimed that this was a rare interview. Rare for whom? For the President or for Al Jazeera. Only last year, a number of foreign journalists conducted interviews with the President, a fact that Ms Dutton either conveniently forgot in order to sensationalise her report, or rather she was not aware of the previous interviews.
Ms Dutton was making sensational unfounded allegations, and as a sign of her ignorance, stating them as truths to be explained by the President. This sort of thing is more at home in the run down back street tea shops, rather than on an international forum.
Lets assume for a moment that Ms Dutton had done her research and as she claims all her statements were unequivocal truths. In one of her wild allegations she stated that Israel has a military base in Eritrea, presumably in the Dahalak Islands. Assuming this to be true, how then can she justify her next statement " Why do you send arms to Hamas" (its not even do you send arms). So if both these statements are true, we now have a situation where, despite the military presence of Israel, the Eritrean government manages to send arms to Israel's enemy, Hamas. Only recently Israel destroyed Gaza in order to curb Hamas, so why is it allowing arms to flow underneath its nose to its sworn enemy? Shouldn't the esteemed Dutton have asked this before she blurted out statements that are to say the least, contradictory if not down right childish.
When Al Jazeera English first came to air, it tried to portray itself as a voice for the voiceless, as a different perspective etc. I had my doubts then because the faces that fronted this new phenomena were quite familiar old BBC, CNN newscasters.
Sadly, Al Jazeera is beginning to show its true colour and the sheep skin that it had been wearing is getting a bit threadbare, exposing the true nature of its editors and presenters.
So much for the free press 'en-lighting' us.