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Al-Jazeera Journalists Found Guilty of Creating ‘Fake News’ in Egypt
21st Century Wire says…
Al Jazeera employees Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were sentenced to three years in an Egyptian prison on Saturday, while Australian colleague Peter Greste was deported to his native Australia.
The Qatar-based media network stands accused of fabricating elements of an air strike by Egypt in Libya in February 2015. Since the charges were brought in March, Al Jazeera has denied any wrong doing or breach of journalistic practice.
The trial quickly became more about celebrity than it did jurisprudence. Giving the trial a true Hollywood and liberal seal of officialdom (and much to the dismay of the two defendants perhaps), CFR member George Clooney’s fashion model-cum-lawyer spouse, Amal Ramzi Clooney, stole center stage as the star human rights lawyer who was defending the Al-Jazeera journalists. Predictably, many mainstream journalists and fans of Clooney quickly rallied to her side, maintaining that she was unfairly defeated by a ‘corrupt Egyptian justice system’:
Just spoke to Amal Clooney who told me “what just happened here is an outrage” “independent court would have acquitted them fully” #AJTrial
— Bel Trew – بل ترو (@Beltrew) August 29, 2015
After the defeat, Amal Clooney, told reporters, “The verdict today sends a very dangerous message in Egypt.” She continued, “It sends a message that journalists can be locked up for simply doing their job, for telling the truth and reporting the news. And it sends a dangerous message that there are judges in Egypt who will allow their courts to become instruments of political repression and propaganda.”
It’s interesting how Clooney brings up the term propaganda here. Al Jazeera has been proven to be a real dab hand at staging fake news in the Middle East. Here’s a little example of Al Jazeera staging a fake scene with an actor pretending to be an injured protester in Egypt. It’s almost comical to watch the actor use his foot to kick away the other actor playing the role of medic:
In fact, Al Jazeera has been one of the most egregious purveyors of hard-core propaganda. Here is Al Jazeera hard at work in Syria, again trying to conjure up something which is not real, using child actors as props:
And again, in Syria, more fake news from Al Jazeera:
There’s also the incident where Al Jazeera appears to have faked some images of a premature ‘rebel celebration’ in Tripoli’s Green Square:
Because of their ambitious propagandizing in conflict theaters, many of al Jazeera’s own staff have jumped ship in order to save their own reputations as international journalists. Live Leak reported in 2102:
In protest against its performance in covering the events in Syria and the Arab region, Managing Director of al-Jazeera Office in Beirut, Hassan Shaaban has forwarded his resignation to al-Jazeera Channel, according to Lebanese al-Akhbar Newspaper. In this context, the newspaper said that Shaaban resigned in protest against the biased and provocative policy adopted by the channel in covering the events in the Arab region, particularly in Syria and Bahrain. The resignation comes a week after the producer of the Channel’s office in Beirut, Mousa Ahmad and the correspondent Ali Hashem resigned for the same reasons. A source told the Lebanese paper Al Akhbar that Al Jazeera’s Beirut correspondent Ali Hashem had quit over the channel’s stance on covering events in Syria. “… his position [which] changed after the station refused to show photos he had taken of armed fighters clashing with the Syrian Army in Wadi Khaled. Instead [Al Jazeera] lambasted him as a shabeeh [implying a regime loyalist],” a source told Lebanese press.
[Also] Prominet Al-Jazeera journalist Bin Jeddo resigns. (24. April 2011)”
Despite their ambitious efforts, Al Jazeera is still no match for the masters of modern propaganda. Under Operation Mockingbird directives, CNN’s shameless approach to fake reporting and agit-prop news is almost legendary, perfecting their modern Wag the Dog news staging in ‘war theaters’ the first Gulf War where it tried to pass-off a fake air raid scene as real news in Saudi Arabia. CNN producers felt this was good enough for hapless American TV viewers…
CNN’s fake ‘bombing’ scenes with Anderson Cooper and operative Danny Dayem in Syria in 2012-2013:
CNN’s shame during the first Gulf War in 1991:
And we can’t forget this all-time classic by the BBC which was cynically thrust on the British public on the eve the Parliamentary vote for a war in Syria in August 2013:
So, we ask Amal Clooney, and our readers too: in terms of propaganda, who is more dangerous today in the world – Egypt, or CNN, BBC, FOX News and Al Jazeera?
Al-Jazeera journalists sentenced to three years for ‘spreading false news’ in Egyptian retrial
Rose Troup Buchanan
The Independent
Three Al Jazeera journalists have been convicted for “spreading false news” and jailed for three years following a retrial in Egypt.
Canadian national Mohammed Fahmy, Australian journalist Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed were convicted on Saturday as friends and family watched in anguish in a court in Cairo.
Mr Fahmy and Mr Mohamed were in court to hear the verdict. Mr Greste, who was deported to Australia earlier this year following intense campaigning from family and international observers, tweeted his distress over the verdict.
Shocked. Outraged. Angry. Upset. None of them convey how I feel right now. 3 yr sentences for @bahrooz, @MFFahmy11 and me is so wrong.
— Peter Greste (@PeterGreste) August 29, 2015
The three men are accused of aiding the banned political group the Muslim Brotherhood. All deny the charges. In January of this year, the original sentence was overturned and the men were freed awaiting a retrial.
Handing down a verdict for the retrial, the judge sentenced Mr Greste and Mr Fahmy to three years but gave Mr Mohamed an additional six months. He claimed the men were not registered journalists and had been operating from Cairo without a licence.
Al Jazeera’s English acting director-general Mostefa Souag said the court verdict “defies logic and common sense”.
Mr Fahmy’s wife Mawra was distraught over the sentence. “I’m all alone. I don’t know what to do – I never expected him to be jailed.”
“I just want justice,” Mrs Fahmy told reporters as she sobbed in court.
Mr Fahmy and Mr Mohammed were immediately lead from court following the verdict. Reporters there said that neither men were allowed a moment to say goodbye to their families…
Continue this article at The Independent
READ MORE PROPAGANDA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Propaganda Files
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21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.
Source: http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/08/31/al-jazeera-journalists-found-guilty-of-creating-fake-news-in-egypt/
