I wish Al-Jazeera could show the following news to its viewers:
Forced labor for MUSLIM children in Israeli prison
www.palestinenet. org - Friday, 15 September 2006, 11:55
Many Palestinian children in Israeli Telmond Prison are being exploited by
forced labor in which they must work eight hours for a few shekels, as
reported by the Prisoners Information Center.
One of the children made a statement after his release. The prison
administration has forced all prisoners in Telmond Prison to work eight hours
for very low wages. He went on to say, The Israeli soldiers come to the
chambers at seven and force us to go with our legs tied with chains. The child
added that his job was to stand under guard and pack plastic spoons in boxes.
Even injured political prisoners are forced to work, according to Fridays
Nablus-based report. A former prisoner stated, I had a broken bone but the
soldiers forced me out of my cell to work anyway, without any consideration for
the pain.
There are approximately 375 Palestinians in Telmond Prison, with most of them
being children. The oldest Palestinian in Telmond is 22 years old. The child
laborers are given two meals per 24 hours, one at 11:00 pm and another at 6:00
am.
Israeli prison officials also attempt to extract information from children
regarding members of the armed resistance and engage in frequent psychological
abuse
According to the Information Center there are 200 children less than 16 years
old in Israeli prisons begin subjected to some of the worst forms of
exploitation and humiliation. A total of 376 Palestinian children are currently
imprisoned in Israeli prisons and detention camps.
"S A Hannan"@yahoo.com wrote: Dear members,
Assalamu Alaikum .Please see the newa item on Al- Jazeera english channel
which has come on air. Please see the channel and also your cable operator to
give connection of Al -Jazeera I give below their website
http://english.aljazeera.net or aljazeera.net
Shah Abdul Hannan
Al-Jazeera English Hits Airwaves
Islamonine.net & News Agencies
"Al-Jazeera English channel will sit up the news agenda,"
said anchors Ghosh (L) and Zeidan. (Reuters)
DOHA Ten years after changing the face of Arab television reporting by
breaking taboos, the giant Al-Jazeera network launched on Wednesday, November
15, an English-speaking channel with a heavyweight cast of presenters and the
ambition to compete with Western broadcasting giants.
"Al-Jazeera English channel will sit up the news agenda," anchors Shiulie
Ghosh and Sami Zeidan said launching the long-awaited channel's broadcasting.
Broadcasting from the ultra-sophisticated Doha studios, it began with a news
bulletin featuring reports from Gaza, Sudan's Darfur region, Tehran, China and
Brazil.
Al-Jazeera English will initially have 12 hours of live programming, which it
plans to boost to 24 hours on January 1.
It broadcasts from studios in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC,
with offices in 20 other countries and employs some 800 people of 55 different
nationalities.
At least two Israeli journalists are among staff covering Israel.
Among its prominent starts is BBC veteran Sir David Frost, the only person to
have interviewed the last seven US presidents and the last six British prime
ministers.
Al-Jazeera English, only renamed on Tuesday from Al-Jazeera International,
hopes to reach a potential audience of 80 million viewers by cable and
satellite, mostly in Asia, Africa and Europe.
But the channel said on Tuesday it would not be available on cable in the
United States for at least a year as "there is no free space for us on the US
cable network."
Arabic television Al-Jazeera, which began broadcasting in 1996 with staff
largely drawn from the BBC's short-lived Arabic television, gained world fame
through its exclusive reporting of the US military intervention in Afghanistan
in late 2001.
Known for its forthright style, frank journalism, quality programs,
independence and willingness to discuss taboo issues, Al-Jazeera is the
most-watched channel in the Arab world.
Alternative View
The new offshoot of the Doha-based news network comes to give a new
perspective of news to English speakers around the world who are looking for an
alternative to CNN and the BBC.
"Launching the English channel offers the chance to reach out to a new
audience that is used to hearing the name of Al-Jazeera without being able to
watch it or to understand its language," said network general director Wadah
Khanfar.
"One of our goals is to reverse the flow of information to the south," he
said, adding that the Middle East and developing nations have not had a voice
of their own.
The channel is being beamed to an Asian region which is booming and hungry
for news, industry experts say.
Kuala Lumpur is the regional headquarters for the international broadcaster's
Asian operations, a market of three billion people of which about one-third are
Muslims.
"Asia is booming. And the interest for news is strong," said Allan Williams,
managing editor with the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), stressing that
the time was ripe for Al-Jazeera to launch in the region.
"Asia is a huge market. India, Pakistan, China and the 10 ASEAN countries
offer huge market potential for Al-Jazeera."
Al-Jazeera English's managing director Nigel Parsons, a Briton who formerly
worked for the BBC, said he was confident of their success in Asia.
"Yes, we want to provide an alternate view. We want to bring a different
perspective. Kuala Lumpur is an important broadcast center," he said.
"We want to look at the world from an Asian perspective."
Editorial Policy
"One of our goals is to reverse the flow of information to the
south," Khanfar said.
The new baby of Al-Jazeera network is aware of the sensitivities of some
controversial words for the western audience.
"Al-Jazeera English's audience will be different from ours," the mother
channel's editor-in-chief, Ahmed al-Sheikh, said earlier this month.
"But we will coordinate our editorial policy through daily meetings in order
to agree on, among others, controversial terms such as 'martyrs', 'terrorism'
and 'resistance' in the coverage of regional conflicts," he said.
The giant channel is attempting to immediately establish its credentials as a
balanced network.
Al-Jazeera English showed a snippet of an interview with Hamas political
supremo Khaled Meshaal and said it would later air an interview with Israeli
Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
The Arab news empire is well known for angering leaders in both the West and
the Arab world.
Washington has accused Al-Jazeera of being a mouthpiece for extremists,
notably in Iraq, where the channel has been banned from reporting since 2004.
Britain's Daily Mirror has cited on November 22 a Downing Street memo marked
"Top Secret" saying that US President George W. Bush planned to bomb the
pan-Arab satellite channel in 2004, but he was talked out of the idea by
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