Al-Jazeera approved

The CRTC has approved the "Arab CNN" for Canadian cable television. And the leaps of logic they use to justify their decision is really quite extraordinary, even by the commission's own standards:

The application to offer the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera through Canada's direct-to-home satellite networks was contested by the Canadian Jewish Congress and other groups, which said the network disseminates "anti-Semitic hate speech."

Al-Jazeera is often referred to as the "CNN of the Arab world" and is often the first to broadcast messages and videotaped statements from militants in Iraq and belonging to al Qaeda.

Commission chairman Charles Dalfen agrees that the network had made remarks that held Jews up to hatred and contempt. But he said Al-Jazeera had met the test of being a credible news service, and the commission had a legal duty not to unduly infringe freedom of expression.

"In light of not wanting to ban it because it is, after all, a bona fide service... but fearing that the record showed a large number of abusive comments, we felt someone had to take responsibility for it," Dalfen told Reuters.

In its ruling the CRTC said distributors of Al-Jazeera in Canada will be required to guard against the broadcast of "any abusive comment." That could mean the editing or deleting of some content. [emphasis added]

So, they agree that the station broadcasts antisemitic hate propaganda, but that it's still a "credible news source" that they should allow on freedom-of-expression grounds, but that its content may be edited or deleted to bar "abusive comment".

Um...okay.

Ultimately, I'm about as radically pro-free-speech as you can get away with in this country, and therefore I cannot oppose allowing Al-Jazeera to be broadcast here. I'm not sure how the same commission that yanked an "offensive" Quebec radio station off the air can justify allowing a news channel it admits is antisemitic, but I gave up trying to figure out the CRTC a long time ago. In a way, I wish they'd allow the station to broadcast live and unedited in Canada, so we can really see just how "credible" Al-Jazeera really is.

But Canadians who want the Fox News Channel should take heart, because now that the CRTC has allowed Al-Jazeera, it's hard to see how they can justify keeping out (shudder) a conservative news channel. Though I'm sure some Canadian bureaucrats could make up a reason.

Posted by damian at July 15, 2004 06:05 PM