So much for freedom of the press..
Though wonder why they didnt think of this before instead of belly aching about it and bombing their offices.
Staff at al-Jazeera have been ordered to tone down “excessive violence” in their coverage of Iraq, sparking fears that the Arab satellite channel’s senior editors are softening in their determination to resist pressure from the US government.
Al-Jazeera’s unflinching approach to covering the violence in the Middle East has put it at loggerheads with the Bush administration, and this week the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, made an official complaint to the Qatar government about the channel.
Mr Powell protested that what he claimed was the channel’s anti-American bias was “clouding” relations between the two countries.
The channel, which is based in the Qatari capital, Doha, has always refused to bow to such pressure - despite being funded by the autocratic Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, a staunch ally of America. The strategy has earned al-Jazeera a huge following throughout the Arab world.
But now it has emerged that earlier this month staff received a memo informing them that editor-in-chief Ahmed Sheikh had been “upset” by the recent “extreme violence” on the station
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