Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN) has said it “totally refutes” false claims by Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), that Al Jazeera was compelled to “cancel” a yet-to-be-broadcast investigation into the activities of pro-Israel advocacy groups in the US.
“Mr Klein obviously mischaracterises the subject of the series as the ‘American Jewish Lobby’, when the investigation is into American pro-Israel organisations (including the ZOA), which work to further the interests of a foreign power on American soil,” the network said in a statement yesterday.
AJMN has stressed that it also “utterly rejects the abhorrent allegation that the series is viciously anti-Semitic”. The investigation deals with organisations that influence US government policy in the Middle East, which is a subject of significant public interest. “It is astonishing that Mr Klein writes about a documentary series that he has not seen in terms that are prejudicial, inaccurate and inflammatory,” it adds.
He also refers to the UK edition of ‘The Lobby’, broadcast in January 2017, which he again misconstrues as being about the “Jewish lobby” in Britain.
“This series exposed a campaign by the State of Israel to interfere with domestic politics in the UK, which included covert operations to promote a foreign country’s agenda within Britain’s political parties.
In one case, it revealed a plot to ‘take down’ a government minister who was critical of Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank,” the statement points out.
The Israeli ambassador to the UK was forced to apologise to the Foreign Office and the diplomat involved was fired.
The investigation also triggered a parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference in British politics, AJMN said.
Pro-Israel advocacy groups in the UK made a series of complaints to the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the quasi-government regulator that ensures fairness and accuracy on British television.
Al Jazeera is a signatory and abides by Ofcom’s stringent codes of practice.
The complainants levelled charges of anti-Semitism, bias, unfair editing and infringement of privacy.
After eight months of investigation, Ofcom’s detailed, 60-page ruling vindicated Al Jazeera’s journalism on every count and each complaint was rejected in full.
The mission of Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit, which produced the two series on pro-Israel advocacy organisations, is to unmask wrongdoing and reveal truths that are being kept from the public, the statement explains.
Recent award-winning investigations uncovered corruption in the Maldives, the criminal gangs that fuel the illegal trade in rhino horn in South Africa, and the unregulated market in military-grade spying equipment.
In 2018, the unit investigated fraud involving Eastern European oligarchs and produced a documentary into child sexual abuse in British football, which was simultaneously broadcast by Channel 4 Television in the UK.
The journalists in the Investigative Unit are American, British and Australian, AJMN said.
They have decades of professional experience at BBC, MSNBC, ABC, ITN, Channel 4 and Britain’s Sunday Times and Observer.
Since its formation in 2011, the Investigative Unit has generated global exclusives that have been described by The New York Times as “explosive” and made front-page headlines in USA Today, The Guardian, El Pais and Mail on Sunday.
As a network, Al Jazeera says its “independent, high-quality journalism is praised all over the world”.
Recently, Al Jazeera English was named Broadcaster of the Year for the second year running at the New York Festivals, where AJMN was honoured with 46 awards.
“Al Jazeera is committed to independent journalism and reaffirms its belief in media freedom, unhampered by government influence. It considers it deeply unsettling that organisations in the United States are attempting to suppress its output and curtail freedom of speech. Al Jazeera considers such attempts as a form of harassment that threatens the safety of journalists and their ability to perform their professional duties in a secure environment,” the network adds.
“AJMN reserves the right to take legal action against anyone who attacks its character and integrity, as well as that of its journalists. Individual members of Al Jazeera’s staff also reserve that right.”