Sami Al Haj & Al Jazeera

Maintaining media interest in this or that cause or effort is probably always a matter of ups and downs, statistically speaking; a spike in interest followed by a fall. Looking at it in this light, some might say the accusations often thrown at the Arab media for dramatically failing various causes are exaggerated. However, considering the fact that Arabs are such news junkies, the number of issues which have been met with deafening silence and the occasional brief headline doesn’t reflect positively on the Arab media.

Many of these issues, skirting risky topics and other danger zones, are not censorship-sensitive, and do provoke an enormous amount of interest. A case in point which has had a recent spike of coverage is the continuing detention of Prisoner 345, Al Jazeera’s cameraman Sami Al Haj.

The Arab channel’s recent demonstrations calling for the release of Sami Al Haj was covered on Al Jazeera Live, Al Jazeera English, and the original Al Jazeera…and that was it. Even more depressingly, Al Jazeera English’s coverage was no more than a brief voiceover, providing very little context. And, while the Free Sami campaign is featured on the Arabic site, on the English version it’s often difficult to find even a mention of the cameraman.  

Admittedly AJE have had quite a few reports on Al Haj, including a translation of Prisoner 345, the 2006 documentary by Ahmad Ibrahim, as well as an interview with his wife Asma on Everywoman. But Al Jazeera as a whole should take every opportunity to highlight the situation their cameraman has been in for five years, if only because no one is going to it for them.  And this is exactly why what amounts to AJE’s ignoring the vigil held for Sami Al Haj was in my opinion unconscionable. Basically the little-noticed vigil would not have been seen by anyone who is not already concerned or aware of Sami’s situation. The fact that the Sudanese government called for his release a few weeks ago is hardly likely to alter that fact.

Around the same time as the Al Jazeera vigils and demonstrations, there was a BBC programabout Alan Johnston’s experience in Gaza. This reminded me of the fact that Al Jazeera had joined forces with the BBC and several other networks, marking a Day of Action, something which I think anyone would agree was the right thing to do. But obviously I’m not expecting the BBC to hold rallies calling for Sami Al Haj to be freed or to join Al Jazeera in marking Sami’s Five Years and Counting in Guantanamo. Even the reciprocal statementsmade by the BBC journalist held for 114 days in a room in Gaza, and the Al Jazeera cameraman held for over 1800 days in a cage in Guantanamo - Al Haj calling for Johnston’s release, the released Johnston voicing support for Al Haj – are inspirational only to the optimists. Most commentators would probably see the statements as a symbol of the growing dangers facing reporters around the world.

But for Sami’s wife Asma, what’s clearest is the contrast between the world-wide coverage and attention Johnston has received and Sami’s case, which not only does not make headlines in the west but receives relatively little attention outside Al Jazeera. A while ago, Wadah Khanfar (then Al Jazeera’s director general) pointed out that “you cannot see this case in isolation,” talking about the bombing of Al Jazeera’s bureaus in Kabul and Baghdad, in which Tarek Ayoub died. Al Jazeera didn’t receive an apology or explanation for these bombings. Khanfar did not need to point out the obvious: that Al Haj has not been formally charged. 

In the absence of a reason for his incarceration, one can only resort to the implicit subtext – he made the mistake of being born Sudanese, and as if that were not enough, he then made the mistake of joining Al Jazeera.

Guantanamo-supporters would probably denounce such arguments as making a discrimination case out of slightly unethical but necessary legal proceedings. But it’s difficult to believe that there would be so little attention paid to this case had Al Hajj been a white BBC journalist imprisoned without explanation for five years in, say, Lebanon. Or Sudan. Or Gaza.

Khanfar, joining countless others who have pointed out that increasingly “journalists have become easy to attack, to jail or kidnap” says that this makes it imperative that “this profession…be protected from all centres of power - in Guantanamo or in Gaza.”