OPINION:
President Trump recently touted the agreement between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel as a major diplomatic achievement. While this rapprochement is encouraging, it’s taking place at the same time that the UAE is mounting a massive and disturbing lobbying effort to suppress our First Amendment right to free speech and a free press right here at home.
Specifically, the UAE is orchestrating a lobbying campaign in the United States to pressure the Al Jazeera media network to register as a foreign agent. The UAE’s lobbyists are engaged in an active partisan effort to place members of Congress on the record against Al Jazeera’s right to broadcast freely.
As a former member of Congress from the Chicagoland area, I am proud to have represented Arab-Americans from Chicago’s South Suburbs in Congress. Many — if not most — of these Middle Eastern-Americans are concerned about the partisan debate going on in Washington about Al Jazeera, because for them, Al Jazeera is a critical media outlet.
If this lobbying campaign is successful, it would systematically deny Arab-Americans and others around the world access to the award-winning journalism of Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera, with 80 bureaus around the globe, is one of the largest news organizations in the world, producing video, audio and print news coverage through various media platforms in multiple languages, including Arabic and English. Al Jazeera’s journalists have won hundreds of awards from prestigious organizations — including Amnesty International and the United Nations.
Al Jazeera is a global news force, providing critical coverage around the globe, including to the growing Middle Eastern and Arab-American community across the U.S. There are millions of Middle Eastern-residents throughout the United States.
Al Jazeera reporters have been on the front line, helping to educate viewers with extensive coverage of crucial issues like gun violence and its ties to the economy. This kind of thoughtful reporting promotes more peace and safety across our region and is sorely needed as American news outlets face massive cuts in staff and local coverage.
Al Jazeera, however, is currently at the center of a fierce battle between the UAE and the nation of Qatar. As part of a regional blockade on Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, among other nations, have demanded that Al Jazeera be shuttered. Surprisingly, this attack on freedom of the press has allies in our own Congress, where, since 2017, certain members have bombarded the administration with a series of regulatory challenges to help dismantle Al Jazeera.
Along with an increasing list of targeted Federal Communications Commission regulatory hurdles, these members are attempting to force Al Jazeera to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
In recent years, the organized legal, political and public relations campaign against Al Jazeera has been coordinated and relentless. There is no legal or factual rationale to force Al Jazeera to register and operate under FARA regulations. Al Jazeera employs hundreds of people in the United States and maintains multiple websites aimed at an American audience, including AJ+, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic.
Al Jazeera consistently maintains – and has made it clear in its coverage — that it is not instructed on what it can and cannot cover news-wise and is not under the Qatari government’s control. The news outlet has cited 2011 efforts to convert Al Jazeera Media Network into a standalone entity that is structured like a U.S. nonprofit.
Al Jazeera’s editorial independence has been formalized under laws instituted by Qatar. The network is currently registered as a “private foundation for public benefit” under Qatari law, a move meant to ensure its independent status. American leaders from both sides of the aisle appear on it. It is like BBC or any other international outlet, owned by a foreign government but editorially independent.
At a time when it is more crucial than ever before to have diverse, high-quality news sources in the U.S. and globally, these backdoor efforts to muzzle an important journalistic outlet like Al Jazeera are not only truly misguided but ominous.
The bottom line is that freedom of the press is one of the most important parts of our democracy, and if the U.S. clamps down on the media we all lose some of our freedoms. Let’s not make that mistake and shut down Al Jazeera.
• Debbie Halvorson, a Democrat from Crete in Chicago’s South Suburbs, is a former member of the Illinois 11th Congressional District (2009-11) and served as a member of the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2009. In 2005, she became the first female Senate majority leader in Illinois history.
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