DEDICATION
When our greater forefather Imam Al-Shafi'i (May his soul rest in peace) migrated from Gaza of Hashim to Egypt to work in writing books and teaching people, he wrote a book entitled "The Message". There is the tradition that Imam Al-Shafi'i had proofread that book for more than eighty times. Finally he said what this meant: it was praise to God whose message never changes. I have proofread this thesis more than seven times to find that with every proofreading there are mistakes. This made me realize how humble the effort in this thesis must be, although I exerted much of it to have this study in its present shape. Having finished the thesis, I humbly dedicate it to:
- Palestine and Iraq, as two strong wings of an Arab bird flying in the middle of black winds against the eye of a storm ….to their martyrs who walked before people holding the flame and to all martyrs of the Arab homeland.
- Al-Jazeera Channel and all its workers as a media organization speaking standard Arabic, represented by its General Manager Mr. Wadhah Khanfar…viewers of Al- Jazeera every-where. To Al-Jazeera´s shining star on screen, Mr. Mohammed Krishan, whose appearances always reflect high professionalism and charisma.
- Dr. Mahmoud Al-Massri, whose moral encouragement and continuing care has a deep influence on me during my journey of learning. His good words live in my soul like breath-ing, to him in heart love, in mind respect and in conscience deep gratitude.
- My symbol of personification of loyalty Dear friend Moheeb Joda who parted me for something I have no hand in …and through him to the good-hearted friend Nabeel Al- Sarraj who is settling in my pleased self.
- To my teacher in journalism and the current Ambassador in Romania Adli Sadiq who adopted my case and defended it well in an environment which was never fair. He taught me to be courageous with my opinions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Motto: He who does not thank people does not thank God
It is not fair to claim that this MA thesis could have become into existence without the help of a number of people. I owe them all great thanks and deep gratitude. Those people stood with me and supported my scientific project form an idea until the reality.
The deepest thanks and gratitude goes to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Jouni Suistola who spared no efforts to supervise my thesis and encouraged me to overcome the difficulties I have encountered. I also thank him for his support to the rights of the Arabs of self- determination and free life. My thanks also go to Dr. Tayseer Al-Shanableh who supported me in more than one stage and helped to resolve many problems when they got complicated. Thanks are also due to Dr. Ejdan Sadrazam who became a true friend, and to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zeliha Khashman, Chairlady of the Department of International Relations. I would also like to thank my friend and former professor Dr. Rafid Abdul- Amir Al-Rubaii, the assistant professor at Jerash Private University in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan who proved his faithfulness in the time of troubles and supervised with high quality the translation of this thesis from Arabic into English keeping the coherence of the scientific content in a shape that arouses admiration. In this context I would like to express thanks to Dr. Laith AL-Aqidi who proved his ability in dealing with linguistic problems to the extent that he seemed a man talking the two languages with equal efficiency in addition to knowledge of their cultures.
I owe deep thanks to the administration of Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel for all the generous help, support and material the Company offered me during my research sojourn in Doha. My special thanks in this respect go to the General Manager of Al- Jazeera Network Mr. Wadhah Khanfar, Mr. Mohammed Krishan who was of great support throughout the preparation of this thesis, Mr. Majed Khidhr Director of the Department of Correspondents in Al-Jazeera Channel, journalist Al-Habib AL-Ghareebi who was generous in hosting me, Dr. Faisal Al-Qassim who was especially cooperative, Mr. Abdul-Adheem Mohammed, a citizen of Fallujah with whom I have an exceptional relation, eloquent Ahmed Al-Sheikh, editor-in-chief of Al-Jazeera channel, journalist Abdul-Qadir Ayadh who spared no effort in helping me, journalist Ahmed Mansour, journalist Abdul-Samad Nasir, journalist Jameel Azer, my dear friend
Reporter Al-Zubair Nayil, the smiling press photographer Laith Asim Mushtaq, the honest friend Uday Al-Katib, the translator Muwafaq Fa'q Al-Khalidi, with whom a had very enjoyable discussions, the respectable translator Saman Abdul-Majeed, and other journalists as Fawzi Bushrah, Dr.Yusuf Nur Al-Deen, Mr. Majed Abdul-Hadi, Mudhar Jum'ah, Eslam Hijazi, Ahmed Al-Shalfi, Amjad Alshalatoni, Bibah Wild Mehadi and Ahmad Ashur, Dr. Samir Khidhr whose objective evaluations I respect much, the cooperative and distinguished journalists Ms. Jumana Namur, Ms. Khadijah Bin-Qanna, Ms. Layla Al-Shayib and Ms. Lina Zahr Al-Din, journalist Othman Othman, wonderful Mr. Moneer Al-Daimi whom I am honored to know, Al-Jazeera correspondent in Washington Abdul-Raheem Fuqara', senior correspondent of Al-Jazeera Channel in Palestine Waleed Al-Omari who spared no effort in advising and directing me.
Great thanks and deep gratitude are due to Dr. Lika' Makki who helped me much in enriching the thesis with valuable information and stayed on my side until the thesis came to its final shape - he is really like my elder brother. I also thank Mr. Babakir Isa, editor-in-chief of the Qatari newspaper Al-Raya who welcomed me there. I would like also to thank Mr. Nasir Al-Laham, editor-in-chief of the Palestinian news agency
"Ma'an". I don't forget to express great thanks to his highness Dr. Nasir Al-Qidwa, the former Palestinian foreign minister, who was very open minded in advising me and very cooperative when I was thinking of writing a thesis on a political issue, before I moved to the present topic of my thesis.. I also thank Mr. Ali Nasir Kinana the man whom I have not yet met, but who contributed much in enriching the present thesis with his book.
I may have forgotten some people who helped, to whom I owe an apology. I finally express my thanks to all my friends everywhere who kept in touch throughout my staying in Cyprus. I would especially like to mention my close friends who spared no effort to make the atmosphere suitable throughout my thesis writing. They are my dear friends who live with me: Mohammed Al-Massri, Mohammed Soboh and Usama Al-Wadiya who also sometimes helped me in printing and other issues.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
ABSTRACT vii
INTRODUCTION viii
Chapter 1
Spatial Crowdedness at the Time of Globalizing Media …Al Jazeera Space Channel between competition and pioneering
1.1. Globalization of media 1
1.2. Arab media 5
1.2.1. Official Arabic media 5
1.2.2. Arab Satellite channels 8
1.2.2.1. Al ‘Arabiya’ satellite channel 16
1.2.2.2. Abu Dhabi Satellite Channel 16
1.2.2.3. Al Manar Satellite Channel 16
1.3. Foreign Media in Arabic 17
1.3.1. A Brief History of Directed Media 17
1.3.2. The American Alhurra Satellite Channel 18
1.3.3. Iranian ‘Al Alam’ Satellite Channel 18
1.3.4. The French ‘France 24’ Satellite Channel 19
1.4.The International News Satellite Channels 19
1.4.1. The American CNN Channel 20
1.4.2. The British BBC World channel 20
1.4.3. International Al Jazeera Channel 21
1.5. Al Jazeera in Qatar, reasons of distinctiveness and pioneering 21 1.5.1. Foundation in Qatar, Why not anywhere else? 21
1.5.2.Contexts of Development 29
1.5.2.1. The Context of Pioneering 29
1.5.2.2. The Context of the Foreign Pressures 30
1.5.2.3. The context of Programs 31
1.5.2.4.The distribution of Al Jazeera’s offices 32 1.5.2.5. The context of media breeding of Al Jazeera network
channel 33
1.5.2.5.1. Al Jazeera Satellite Channel 33
1.5.2.5.2. Al Jazeera Sport Channel 33
1.5.2.5.3. Al Jazeera Live 'Mubasher' 33
1.5.2.5.4. Al Jazeera International 33
1.5.2.5.5. Al Jazeera Documentary 34
1.5.2.5.6. Al Jazeera Net 34
1.5.2.5.7. Al Jazeera Mobile 34
1.5.2.5.8. Al Jazeera Center for Training and Development 34
1.5.2.5.9. Al Jazeera Study Center 34
Chapter Two
Fallujah Battle, A Bloody Episode Preceded by Long Iraqi Series
2.1. Gulf Wars 35
2.2. American Invasion of Iraq 36
2.2.1. Reasons of the invasion 36
2.2.2 Ideological Reasons of the War 41
2.2.3. Military Operations 44
2.2.4. Iraq after the Invasion 45
2.2.5. The Start of the Resistance 46
2.2.5.1. Islamic Iraq State 47
2.2.5.2. Jihad and Reform Frontier 48
2.2.5.3. Iraqi Hamas Frontier 48
2.2.5.4. Jihad and Change Frontier 48 2.2.5.5. Independent Jihad Frontiers 48
2.3. Al Fallujah Battle 49
2.3.1. Reasons of the Battle 49
2.3.2. Diaries of the Battle 53
2.3.3. End of the battle 68
Chapter 3
Media Coverage of Fallujah Battle…Attraction Center Based in Al Jazeera
3.1. Media Coverage of the Battles 71
3.1.1. Covering Wars 71
3.2. Media Coverage of the Second Gulf War 76
3.3. Al Jazeera Channel in Iraq 78
3.3.1. Al Jazeera in the Eye of the Events 78
3.3.2. Al Jazeera in Fallujah…Entering despite Danger 83 3.4. Reading Al Jazeera’s Media Coverage of the First Fallujah Battle
in Iraq 86
3.4.1. Television Broadcasting of Fallujah Battle 86
CONCLUSION 99
BIBLIOGRAPHY 110
APPENDX
122
ABSTRACT
The main idea of this study is to focus on analyzing the nature of the change of the media in the Middle East, and its implications on the one hand to the Arab Street – the Arab public opinion, and on the other hand to the way media covers the events here in the new media environment. Moreover, it has been considered necessary to connect the development of the media in the Middle East to the global media changes and the globalization itself.
As a model for the other Arab media and as the best example of the media influence Al Jazeera and its coverage of the first Falluja battle in April 2004 have been chosen as a case study. The political effects of the Iraqi resistance in Fallujah have influenced Iraq, and the US project in Iraq. The thesis deals with Al Jazeera Satellite Channel, in a way that dives in to both the political and informational aspects. The main editorial line on which the Channel is built on its principle of presenting differing opinions and views. The undisputed international status of the Channel, the variety of its programs and its development to a complete network, form, of course, the starting point of the influence of Al Jazeera.
Regarding the historical background, the First (1980–1988) and the Second Gulf War (1991) have been tackled, because these two conflicts are deeply connected to the Third Gulf War (2003 Iraq). Then, the period of the blockade (1991–2003) and the American occupation of Iraq are discussed. Also the reasons behind the Falluja battle and the circumstances where it took place, the battle, and its outcome are discussed.
Regarding the coverage of Al Jazeera Channel of the battle, the main emphasis is put on the importance and influence of the coverage. The circumstances of the coverage
and how the channel entered Falluja as the only channel, and continued there despite of the hardships and threats the crew of the Channel faced in Falluja are described. Finally, there is the analysis of the image and its contents on the screen of Al Jazeera. They are put in the context of the American (military) coverage of the events. Here, the core question is, what made the coverage so “dangerous” for the American, that Al Jazeera is still today excluded from Iraq.
INTRODUCTION
There was a great importance of the media exclusive coverage of Al Jazeera channel for the first Falluja battle, which took place in Iraq in April 2004, between the US-led coalition forces on one side, and the people of the small town of Falluja backed by some of the formations of the Iraqi military resistance on the other. The great importance comes from the crossing of several political and media broad lines that interacted in that coverage, because it was able to escape the media ban imposed by the coalition forces, and cover the largest battle between the coalition forces and the Iraqis as counterparts after the invasion. This event had a big influence in drawing the future of the American army in Iraq. All that happened after Al Jazeera channel entered the town, which is within the province of Al Anbar (the largest of the eighteen provinces in Iraq). “Before the battle Al Jazeera sent a technical and professional crew provided with all necessary equipment to cover the reactions for the annual anniversary of the occupation of Iraq in April 9th 2003, which was one of the activities of a full-day coverage to be broadcasted from Baghdad in cooperation with Doha studios, to shed light on the atmosphere of the Iraqi streets with all its factions one year after the occupation”1.
Preceded by a tight siege by the American forces on Falluja, the battle started after one of the angry branches of resistance and the people of Falluja killed four security contractors working in the notorious ‘Blackwater’ company, which has a contract with the American ministry of defense. Al Jazeera channel was present at that scene and put it on television with all the professional media and journalistic arts of news coverage, from inside and outside the besieged town, as much as it could until the end of the battle.
1 Interview with Majid Khidhr, head of Baghdad office during the battle in 2004, and presently head of reporters at Al Jazeera channel, in September 12th 2007 in Doha.
Al Jazeera news channel was thus the only one broadcasting from inside Falluja, contrary to the other world journals and news agencies, “which waited for the exclusive photos broadcasted by Al Jazeera to break news of the scenery by the moment”2.
This gave Al Jazeera additional power, and increased the number of viewers more than any other competing news channel, as it was the main source dominating the information in the field.
This was not the first time Al Jazeera dominated news, whether being the only channel or being the first one to cover it. Al Jazeera was able to cover other world events, which were more hot, with high professionalism, its daily journal is full of new news “thus surpassing its regional borders and becoming a special international media phenomenon after being distinguished in covering the first three wars of the new millennium in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon”3. It made stirred the Arab political, as well as the cultural and the social life, which transferred to western world, where they started following Al Jazeera and writing about it more than any other news channel. As an example, the French “Le Monde” newspaper appointed a journalist whose duty is to follow Al Jazeera channel and analyze whatever is shown on its screen before writing a daily column called “View on Al Jazeera” that is not published in the cultural page or the TV programs page but in the main international pages, which is not done by the French paper with any other television”4.
Al Jazeera has grown to become more than a channel, after it became a media network in March 23rd 2006 that the east and the west heard of equally, and it included, in addition to the main Arabic channel, a number of other media institutions; like Jazeera Direct, Jazeera sport, Jazeera documentary, Jazeera net in Arabic and English, training and development center, Jazeera studies center, and last but not least Jazeera international in English, which is watched by more than 80 million viewers spread in the six continents, as Mr., Wadhah Khanfar told me in Doha.
2 Interview with Ahmed Al Sheik, editor-in-chief of the Channel in September 13th 2007, Doha.
3 Al Jazeera satellite channel after ten years, Brochure of Al Jazeera satellite Channel. November 2006, Doha.
4 Mohamed Krishan, Al Jazeera and its sisters. Political article ''the Anger on Al Jazeera'', Damascus, 2006, p.14.
This explains what ‘the Jyllands Posten’, one of the main three newspapers in Denmark and the one interested in publishing offensive drawings of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) two years ago which caused a diplomatic crisis between the Islamic world and Copenhagen, and an Arab popular boycott with Danish products, published in an article by (Kim Minka), who started by saying “the foreign minister (Per Stig Moller) showed big admiration a few weeks ago of the international Al Jazeera channel, and favored it well-established international channels like the BBC, the CNN, and the Danish television channel”5.
Al Jazeera channel was distinguished by the news treatment of the event, being unbiased, objective, and transparent, qualities characterizing the channel since its beginning in November 1996, when it announced total bias to “the human being and his humanity regardless of his ethnicity, religion, color, or political ideology”6. This drew clear lines for Al Jazeera channel that it could not divert from, whether editorial field, talk shows, or live programs, “for if it had changed the style of the program ‘The Opposite Direction’, under intimidation of temptation, it would not have stayed lively and viewed as it is now”7.
Al Jazeera channel, which made a revolution in the world of Arab media and ''space channels'' since it started, undergone continuous criticism and skepticism by individuals, groups, and regimes before everyone else, and they accused it of various contradicting things at the same time. All that because it did not leave anything as a taboo and without entering it, out of its principal rule, which became a motto for its workers and employees, opinion and the other opinion. This made it the number one channel for Arab people seeking news, where they would listen to one viewpoint and to the other one that differs with it, after the official Arab education policy through Arab stations failed for following the ruling political regimes. As any media institution, no one can claim that Al Jazeera has not a political agenda which can show by its editing line, and its broadcasting the news in professional and balanced way.
5 Kim Minka, Danish Jyllands Posten, Al Jazeera in the great war of relations at the time of war, August 18th 2007.
6 Interview with Wadhah Khanfar, general director of Al Jazeera network in September 22nd 2007, Doha.
7 Interview with Faisal Al Qassim, presenter of ‘the Opposite Direction program' at Al Jazeera, in September 25th 2007, Doha.
The lack of serious media that Arabs lived in made the elite audience and the ordinary ones turn to follow the media speaking their own language. Those media were not of Arab origin and they were sometimes even hostile, but they were there to listen to the news and the analysis and catch a glimpse of what is going on in the world concerning their own issues. Thus, the BBC Arabic division, established in 1938 in London, became a trustful and known source for all, in addition to the famous station of Monte Carlo, which has as much Arab listeners as the BBC, the Voice of America, Holland’s station, Switzerland’s station, and the Voice of Israel, which was founded after the defeat of 1967, addressing Palestinians, Syrians, Egyptians, Lebanese, and Jordanians in the first place.
Al Jazeera was keen to present a good political meal daily to the Arab citizens, for it became closer and closer to the knowledge lines of the issues of the Arab nation, and Al Jazeera screen grew to have a role in identifying the issues of the hour, which are related to the Arab and international issues, and it was as an important role as its professional role. The fact is that Al Jazeera surpassed the limits adopted and protected by the official Arab regimes, which were very angry with the performance of Al Jazeera because it did not put limits for its professional movement to stop it from boldly, openly, and with high standard professionalism discussing subjects relating to other countries and regimes. This was unusual for the few news channels, “which were, like all other official and non-official media, which commit to a code of honor issued by the Arab League in 1965 that bans any governmental Arab media to criticize another government”8.
Al Jazeera, meaning the peninsula, inspired by the place where it was founded, the Arabian peninsula, was planned to become the CNN of the Arabs that covers the events from the Arabic perspective and in Arabic language, and not with foreign perspective with Arabic language, especially after the second Gulf war in 1991, that brought to light the status of media and its role in attracting ideas and powers together in spite of the grouping and divisions that overwhelmed the people of the area.
8 Mohamed Baba Wild Ashfagh, Al Jazeera and its secrets. The informational and technical aspects for the establishing of Al Jazeera, the informational aspect, p.15.
Al Jazeera succeeded in creating an Arab media atmosphere that rivals with all other international ones, which are led by companies and media institutions of long history in news work in general, and television work in particular, that “Al Jazeera in the first year of its establishment used to hang a banner on its gate saying – the world watches CNN and CNN watches Al Jazeera – which was later removed”9.
The CNN was not the only one following Al Jazeera, for the Arabic channel succeeded to become the main source for many world-famous television news channels especially for those which had exclusive coverage of many fields, the most prominent of which was covering the American military operation Desert Fox, which continued for days in December 1998 in Iraq after the crisis of international inspectors searching the presidential palaces of the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Furthermore, most of the channels took photos and information aired by Al Jazeera in its coverage of the American war on Afghanistan in October 2001, “until the United States started fighting on two fronts: the first is the war in Falluja, and the second is the attempt to minimize the great influence and widespread scandal made by the channel in its covering of the event from the actual battle field, that it became a source of great annoyance for both military and political American leaderships, which started falsifying Al Jazeera and urging Iraqis and Arabs not to watch it”10.
Because Falluja was the biggest real battle that took place after American president George Bush announced the end of main military operations in Iraq by the end of May 2003, it represented a real shock for the Americans, in that it revealed the size of their potentials and that of their enemy –meaning the Iraqi people– on actual ground. The Americans were surprised with the complex of influential resistance that took popular form directed towards serious organization, the popular rejection of the occupation and its projects, and the fragile new Iraqi rulers, which gave a name to the occupation as – the Iraqi swamp – and took its way to political, media, and military dictionary inside and outside America by reading the facts and outcomes of the Falluja battle.
9 A banner that was hung on the entrance of Al Jazeera channel since November 1996, before it moved to the new headquarters at the same place in capital of Qatar.
10 Interview with Abdul Adheem Mohammed, al Jazeera reporter in Fallujah during the battle in April 2004, in September 11th 2007, Doha.
One of the most important consequences (or results) of Fallujah battle, which was aired to the world by Al Jazeera channel, is that strong voices in the US have started to call for withdrawal of the American troops from Iraq. The human, material, and morality losses of the Americans in the first Falluja battle were an incentive for the Americans causes lose, who refused the idea of war, to pressure the White House to take the decision to leave Iraq before the case of Falluja would spread in other Iraqi cities, which according to their public opinion would mean the rise in the cost of war, and failure of the American project. Even if the coalition forces won on the military side, this would mean the fall of the -so- called American principles calling for freedom, justice, equality, and democracy. Consequently, it would mean the collapse of the American value system, which became doubted and ludicrous after one year of the occupation, which was based on claims that were proven to be false, and speculations that were not supported by evidences, after officially announcing that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, and disproving any relation of the regime of the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with Al Qaeda and terrorism.
Talking about the first battle of Falluja the reactions of this battle, which left a mark on Americans and Iraqis as well and the future of the occupation in general, Al Jazeera channel played a significant role coverage formed a source of information for other media. This resulted in official American resentment of Al Jazeera, starting with the administration of the White House and the Pentagon and the American civil and military leadership in Iraq. It also relates to the American-British document, leaked by the British ‘Daily Mirror’ newspaper in November 22nd 2005, about the meeting of president Bush with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on April 16th 2004, during the Falluja battle, to discuss the bombing of Al Jazeera channel, before withdrawing the credit from the channel and banishing it from Iraq on August 7th 2004, which is the date that preceded the second Falluja battle, which took place in November of the same year.
In my thesis, I tried to analyze the nature of the media coverage of the first battle of Falluja by Al Jazeera channel in April 2004, and the political effects of this coverage which influenced Al Jazeera, Iraq, and the US project in Iraq. In the thesis, which is divided into three chapters, some of personal interest of Al Jazeera and Iraq equally,
supported that objective scientific research void of any pre-judgments. In that I sought scientific objectivity, which made me, partly due to the scarcity of resources on the subject in Turkish Cyprus, to travel to Qatar to meet and interview the officials and workers of Al Jazeera, who were connected to the coverage of Falluja battle.
The research preferred varying the sources to not being limiting them to only the books, which related the topic, and what was published in the internet in the form of articles and reports. The researcher managed to have more than thirty meetings with the employees of Al Jazeera channel who were related to the subject. Using more than eighteen hours of recorded broadcasting for analysis and documentation, and these are divided to news bulletins, analytical discussions, and programs broadcasted by Al Jazeera from Iraq and others from Doha related to Falluja battle. Using also managed to bring some books and bulletins issued by the channel as sources, and received the addresses and telephone numbers of some of the channel’s reporters in Washington to enrich the research with their testimonies concerning the Falluja battle.
The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter deals with Al Jazeera Satellite Channel, in a deep introductory way that dives in both the political and informational aspects, and the editorial line with the direction and idea that Al Jazeera built itself on, by adapting the principle of the differing opinions and views, with the international status of the channel and its development into a complete network, and the main programs and areas covered by the channel. Before discussing Al Jazeera, was necessary to discuss the new role of media in the Middle East, because otherwise is not possible to understand the bigger framework where the media works in the Middle East and influence of Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera has been the leading to change this role and it has also offered a model to the innumerous other satellite channels. Those channels have been of vital importance in helping to develop an Arab public opinion, which is also often called “the Arab Street”. Furthermore, those channels have been in a central position to help the Arab world to participate in the globalization process.
The second chapter focuses on the battle of Falluja, where a flashback is taken to retain the events accompanying the Iraqi-Iranian war by taking a look at the First gulf war (1980–88) and the Second Gulf War, because these two conflicts are deeply
intertwined, because the two wars preceded the American invasion of Iraq, which Al Falluja battle happened during. Then talking about the American occupation of Iraq and the time that preceded it, the time of the blockade, as a simple background before moving to discuss Falluja, and the beginning of confrontations with the coalition forces two weeks after the occupation. The Iraqi resistance, how it started, its aims and incentives, and its formations were discussed. Finally, I move to the reasons of the Falluja battle and the circumstances where it took place, the battle, and its outcome were analysed.
In the third chapter, the coverage of Al Jazeera channel was considered, with the main emphasis in identifying the importance television coverage, and then the coverage at the time of the war. The presence of Al Jazeera in Iraq before the battle and the crew that was there, then the coverage in Falluja through reporters, reports, and programs were discussed. Then the circumstances of the coverage and how the channel entered Falluja as the only channel, and continued there despite of the hardships and threats facing the crew of the channel. Were presents the image and its contents on the screen of Al Jazeera exclusively, to come to the American point of view of the coverage exclusive or Al Jazeera were analysed, through the statements and declarations of American military and civil officials, and what practices related to that in reality.
