development > listening post

For
the

love of

journalism

34 > QATAR TODAY > JANUARY 2015

If there is one man who rode on the power of

broadcasting, the kind that brought about the
downfall of age-old regimes and wily dictators, it
was Wadah Khanfar, the ex-Director General of
Al Jazeera. And now after he has given it all up,
he is as possessed by the profession as before;
though he now uses his power to motivate the
youth, as he did at the Shape ME Conference
held in Doha last month. By Sindhu Nair

have always been terrified at the prospect of interviewing a prominent journalist. Would he grasp my lack of profound expertise in world politics, pick
on my seemingly deficient journalistic
traits, or dismiss my years of work as
inconsequential? Armed with all these reservations and some others, due to the lack
of time allocated for the interview, I meet
the man who changed the course of Arab
journalism: Wadah Khanfar, the ex-Director General of Al Jazeera network.
I shouldnt have worried as here was a
man who loved his vocation with a passion
and telling stories, his included, comes naturally to him all he needed was someone
to ask the right questions.
After a highly-volatile and successful
eight-year tenure as the Director General
of Al Jazeera, Khanfar, voluntarily resigned and speculations have been rife to
this day, some insisting that he was asked
to leave by the owners of the channel, the
ruling family. From war correspondent to
Baghdad Bureau Chief to Director General
from 2003 until he stepped down in 2011,
Khanfar has worked through the closure
and bombing of Al Jazeeras bureaus during
the Arab Spring, the murder of its journalists and propaganda smears.
On reasons why he quit, he has been
quoted thus: People have created a lot of
discussions about this issue, but I really
feel that eight years is enough for any business leader to accomplish his mission. After
that, it is going to be difficult to continue.
This was the right time for me to move on
and start thinking about new issues to get

involved in.
Whatever the motives, here is someone
who does miss being in the limelight, the
thrill of being in the news room, the excitement of being at the centre of events as they
evolve, the adrenaline rush, but who
does not pine much for the administrative
part of the job. He says, News, which is the
core of what Al Jazeera is about, is what I
essentially miss; of getting news, of interacting with journalists and experts.
So how does he feel when he looks at
news as it unfolds on the screen? Does his
brain react as instinctively as it used to
when he was at AJ, or has he really moved
away from it all?
You cannot undo the journalistic instinct, it comes with the territory, he says.
Listening to a news bulletin is not relaxing
anymore because your mind is constantly
looking at probabilities, at the complexities
behind it, the context, the superficiality of it
all, the anecdotes and sometimes the depth
of the issue discussed. You are not only listening to a news bulletin but also judging
the way it was done.
My worry resurfaces yet again but I go
back to questioning with the adeptness that
would shame even the most expert journo.
Three years after he has left the channel,
Khanfar retains the perspective of a journalist even as he heads the Sharq Forum,
which its website states is an independent
international network whose mission is to
develop long-term strategies to ensure the
political development, social justice and
economic prosperity of the Arab world.
Khanfar looks back at his career and
QATAR TODAY > JANUARY 2015 > 35

development > listening post

"Diversity
became part of
my intellectual
paradigm. I started
to understand the
various political,
cultural, religious
background of the
people that I was in
touch with."

remembers the first changes that he made

when he joined the channel and here his
ruminations take on a philosophical undertone that defines what he is currently undertaking at Al Sharq.
I came from a research and study background and was a student of international
politics, and the difference between being
embedded in long-term political and strategic struggle and reporting news of today is
an issue of mentality, he says. An analyst
takes time to think about the story, of looking at it from various angles, while a journalist loves to catch the story and make sure
that it has been broadcasted immediately.
It took Khanfar time to adjust to these
two completely different genres of reporting: From being someone who loves the
analytics of news to understanding the
immediacy of news, especially since TV
reporting is much more about the topicality of news than even newspaper reporting,
took time, but change I did. The change in
mentality, this inner change, was hence the
first big step towards building a network
that made sense of the Arab world, its conflicts and celebrations, its complexities and
simplicities, the deep mysteries associated
with the region, to the rest of the world.
The quiet life of living in a place like
South Africa, enjoying the happenings of
the country and covering it, to adapting to

36 > QATAR TODAY > JANUARY 2015

change and moving on to Afghanistan and

then later to Iran, and Qatar, when the rest
of my life at Al Jazeera could only be called
dramatic; to enjoy all this I had to change
my thinking and accept the change as part
of my lifes calling, he says.
The Donkey and more such lessons
Here Khanfar takes us back to his school
days where life was much simpler, when
his morning rides to school on a donkey (a
beautiful animal with zero maintenance
you can tie it to a tree and feed it grass)
took on a deeper, more sublime meaning in
his life, a routine that can be compared to
meditation. Khanfar wishes to bring back
that solitude he enjoyed into the busy lives
we lead now, where not a minute passes
without being interrupted by a Whatsapp
message or an email communication.
Change is not comfortable and for many
a routine is difficult to shake off, but to enjoy the new roles thrust on us there has to
be acceptance from within to understand
and enjoy the ride. But even as one adapts
to change, Khanfar stresses the need to
hold on to core values that define a person.
Here he talks about the values he imbibed when he was in Sudan, his next stop
after college, where life was certainly not
easy but was still enriching because of the
richness of the society, even in dire poverty

of resources. It was here that he learnt to

understand diversity and use it to comprehend without prejudging anyone.
He delves into the study that he was involved in when reporting from South Africa
on the Masai tribe, with core values much
more sophisticated than most modern societies, a social justice system that was erudite, and a pure joy of enjoying life at their
own terms, all opening Khanfars mind
to the diversity around him and the callousness with which man dismisses values
without deeper understanding. Diversity
became part of my intellectual paradigm,
he says. I stopped judging and started to
understand the various political, cultural,
religious backgrounds of the people that I
was in touch with.
It was this philosophy that Khanfar introduced within Al Jazeera, which he terms
the Mind of the Nation, the understanding that each and every country has its
uniqueness, and to understand it you have
to entrench yourself in that culture. This is
the reason why Al Jazeera always made it
a point to send journalists of the same nationality to cover incidents in their country, to understand the intricacies, the soul
behind the matter. He ridiculed the lack
of depth in many of the stories of Western
news agencies, where correspondents were
sent overnight to Afghanistan, to Iran, to

give an overview of the situation.

Here he touches on an incident in
war-ridden Afghanistan, where two Pashtuns living in dire poverty, displacement
and destruction, invited the passing journalists (Khanfar included) for a hot cup of
tea and bread and later refused to accept
money as a form of appreciation and were
even offended because in the Pashtun tradition it was their duty to be hospitable to
guests.
Change in AJ
Al Jazeera took on a new form of in-depth
reporting during Khanfars time and it is his
research background along with his journalism experience that made him opt for
this change in reporting style.
I found that the superficiality of TV in
particular and live reporting was affecting the perceptual framework of analysing
news. Therefore to make use of news for a
wider audience and take it beyond reporting to education and awareness, I introduced an analytical tone in reporting at AJ,
he says. Without taking away the immediacy of news, we made stories more live and
connected with wider realities which would
convert news into knowledge.
The next revolution in news reporting
came in the form of citizen journalism.
This was a revolution within AJ, even
an international awakening. AJ was one of
the few networks which started including
citizen journalism as part of newsroom
journalism, and integrating it into mainstream news. So we had seasoned news editors with decades of expertise working with
young inexperienced citizens, sitting next
to them, feeding them with news and new
perspectives of life.
Al Jazeera is said to have played a leading role in the Arab Spring and even taught
demonstrators tactics and strategy, giving
rebel leaders a platform and airing powerful user-generated content off the Internet that stimulated millions to take to the
streets. Though Khanfar does not go into
the larger role that AJ played in the revolutions, he speaks about the impact of the
form of journalism that was introduced.
We were banned from Tunisia for years
but we found our correspondents on the
streets of Tunisia, feeding our newsroom
with images of the conflict. We took the decision, to give voice to this voiceless group
and to bring them to life, putting them inside every living room in the region through
the channel and then this was replicated in
Egypt, in Yemen, in Libya, he says.
But this was not such a simple process.
There was resistance even within the news-

room, according to Khanfar, from experienced editors who did not want to use the
inexperienced, uncouth form of journalism
from the field, saying it would dilute the seriousness of the matter.
But eventually with time, they realised
that we had no alternative but to use these
citizen journalists found through social media, especially in areas where our bureaus
were banned and where getting reporters
was next to impossible. Slowly this interaction became much more comfortable; the
young guys became more professional and
the seasoned journos started opening their
mind to the new ways of journalism.
This led AJ to be open-minded, dynamic
and the most valued network in the region,
according to Khanfar. But how tough was
maintaining a network with the purest of
news value without being influenced by

can keep serving the public, says Khanfar,

adding that he has tried his best to maintain
this balance, though, he concedes that there
have been instances when AJ has made mistakes: We have gone much beyond what
was necessary for things that might not be
needed and have paid the price for it.
But Khanfar agrees to the fact that his
profession made sure that he went through
a cycle of emotions, from being on top of
the world for exposing news before any
other channel, then a bit of disappointment
when some exclusive news was lost to the
channel when others got to it before us;
the low moments too were frequent, though
not from the reporting side of his job. It
was from small details related to management, when you have to worry about finances, human resources: the management side
of the job.

"I had to create the moment of

balance between maintaining the
interest of the viewer as well as
keeping an eye out for the benefit
of the organisation so it can keep
serving the public."
other governing factors, like TRP rates, and
government demands, if there were any?
There are two parts to my job, says
Khanfar, the Director General, who is a
journalist that wants to keep the core editorial values of AJ intact and advance the
independence of the editorial, which might
bring about confrontation with governments who will not like this freedom. The
second is the executive, who wants to make
sure that the interest of the organisation is
preserved, that is to keep our offices intact
and open, to communicate with everyone to
keep the marketing channels working and
profitable. Sometimes there is a conflict of
interest in both these roles, sometimes the
independence of the editorial might result
in the closure of the bureau in a country,
sometimes the presentation of the news
might result in the journalists being impounded or jailed."
The point here is to create the moment
of balance between maintaining the interest of the viewer as well as keeping an eye
out for the benefit of the organisation so it

The euphoria that is part of the newsroom was exulted when the Mubarak regime was overthrown and is one such unforgettable moment that will go down in
history. Khanfar had instructed his editors
to keep the camera on Tahrir Square and
not move it, nor add any comments, just to
let the sound from the Square come loud
and clear to the viewers. That was a beautiful scene on the TV, the voice of the people
without any interference.
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