Wadah Khanfar

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Wadah Khanfar

Wadah Khanfar is the Director General of the Al Jazeera Network.

1 Journalism
2 Academic Studies
3 Student Life
4 Bureau Chief in Baghdad
5 Further US Pressure
6 External links

[edit] Journalism

Khanfar has covered some of the world's key political zones for the Al Jazeera Channel since 1997. Khanfar's first role in the organisation was as a correspondent in South Africa. In 2001/2002 he was a war correspondent in Afghanistan and during the war in Iraq, he reported from Kurdish-controlled territory in the North. Later, he was appointed as the Chief of the Baghdad Bureau and was successful in re-establishing the bureau in the wake of Iraq's new political landscape. Khanfar became Managing Director of the Al Jazeera Channel in 2003 and Director General of the Al Jazeera Network in 2006.

[edit] Academic Studies

Khanfar studied Engineering in Jordan and went on to post-graduate studies in Philosophy, African Studies, and International Politics.

[edit] Student Life

Khanfar was born in the Palestinian city of Tulkarm. He studied Engineering between 1985 to 1990 at the University of Jordan. During this time Khanfar was involved in a range of student activities which went on to have a definite political impact within Jordan. Early on he started a Student Union with a group of students and colleagues - the idea rapidly came to the attention of the Jordanian authorities. However, Khanfar continued and started an inter-university dialogue group amongst students constituted from a range of political backgrounds. Out of this debate and discussion emerged something called the Students Unity Initiative which was put up for a referendum across the different universities. More than 80% of the students at the universities voted in favor of the referendum. No doubt Khanfar’s ability to give exceptional speeches and rally the students had a part in this majority vote.

According to the Students Unity Initiative the students would start a student union in each university after which a national preparation committee for the general student union would finalize the constitution and the bylaws. Khanfar was elected Chairman of the National Preparation Committee for the constitution and started to initiate a process all over Jordan in order to motivate students of universities and community colleges to be part of it.

In 1989/1990 there was a great deal of discussion about the future of the democratic process and at the same time the parliamentary elections in Jordan started. This was the first initiative that the student unions actually initiated without political interference by political movements and political parties. Again, the most important element that put Khanfar forward as leader of this movement was his capability of delivering speeches being both articulate and motivational. He was noted as being on the forefront of organizing forums, protests, festivals and demonstrations for student rights .

[edit] Bureau Chief in Baghdad

Khanfar led the Al Jazeera Baghdad Bureau in Iraq which had more than a hundred employees - it was the biggest operation for Al Jazeera outside Al Jazeera’s Qatar headquarters and was the biggest media operation inside Iraq. Al Jazeera at that time became the first TV station to cover the developments inside Baghdad, inside Iraq, and became the main source of information about the early military attacks against the Americans. Khanfar was known to have a good relationship with all the political parties in Iraq as well as having a reputation for an impartial approach with all the political parties and ethnic groups, from the Kurds in the north to the Shia and the Sunni.

A critical issue to be noted in Khanfar’s career is his relationship with the US which became especially pronounced in his work as Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera in Baghdad. During that time the US administration started to heavily criticize Al Jazeera. The accusations ranged from allegations that the Channel had contacts with military groups active inside Iraq, to Al Jazeera inciting violence through showing tapes of military operations against the American army. The US subsequently made demands on the Channel to change its coverage. This led to tension for the Channel’s many journalists and crew resulting in Khanfar sending a letter to Paul Bremer. The letter asked the US to stop the intimidation campaign against Al Jazeera’s journalists, and to stop hindering and putting obstacles in front of them. During that time it became obvious that there were more and more pressures and atrocities being committed on Al Jazeera crews in Baghdad - Al Jazeera journalists and crew were at that time detained for days and sometimes for months in the Abu Ghraib prison and some of them were tortured as well.

[edit] Further US Pressure

The US pressure did not abate , the American and British criticism and accusations against Al Jazeera became greater. These accusations sometimes became aggressive to an extent that Rumsfeld and Bush in their press conferences started to officially criticize Al Jazeera and blame Al Jazeera for America’s failure to restore order in Iraq. It later came to the attention of the world that George Bush and Tony Blair discussed the idea of bombing Al Jazeera headquarters, supposedly before the attack on Fallujah in April, 2004.

Subsequently, the US pressure intensified on Qatar to alter Al Jazeera’s coverage and Al Jazeera’s editorial policy regarding Iraq. The US demanded that Al Jazeera stop broadcasting Osama Bin Ladin’s tapes, Al Qaeda tapes, and stop showing videos of military attacks against Americans. The Americans also demanded that Al Jazeera start showing positive news about the US army involvement in Iraq.

Khanfar is observed to have resisted the interference in the Channel’s editorial policy. To safeguard Al Jazeera editorial independence Khanfar, as a managing director, launched in 2004 the Al Jazeera Code of Ethics and Al Jazeera’s Code of Conduct in July 2004 at the First Al Jazeera International Forum. The Code insisted that professional standards and balanced and fair coverage should govern and guide the Channel’s newsroom rather than political or diplomatic interference. Khanfar went on to start the Quality Assurance Department to safegaurd Al Jazeera’s compliance with the articles of the Code. Colin Powell is noted to have commented on the initiative saying that Al Jazeera had taken a positive step but still needed to do more in the future. In response Khanfar stated that Al Jazeera had taken the initiative out of a commitment to the profession and media independence rather than to acquiesce to the wishes of any government.