US embassy cable - 03HARARE638

Disclaimer: This site has been first put up 15 years ago. Since then I would probably do a couple things differently, but because I've noticed this site had been linked from news outlets, PhD theses and peer rewieved papers and because I really hate the concept of "digital dark age" I've decided to put it back up. There's no chance it can produce any harm now.

Identifier:	03HARARE638
Wikileaks:	View 03HARARE638 at Wikileaks.org
Origin:	Embassy Harare
Created:	2003-03-31 09:15:00
Classification:	UNCLASSIFIED
Tags:	IZ PREL KPAO KMDR ZI
Redacted:	This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.

UNCLAS HARARE 000638 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PDPAP FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS 
IRAQ PD FOR SMITH, PINESS AND ROOKARD 
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: IZ, PREL, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION WAR WITH IRAQ; HARARE 
 
 
  1.   Under headline "Al Jazeera and the war in Iraq" 
      the pro-government weekly "The Sunday Mirror" 
      dedicated its March 30 editorial to hailing the 
      Arabic language television network Al Jazeera's 
      coverage of the United States-led war against Iraq. 
      "While the U.S. and its allies were absolutely 
      unchallenged on the propaganda battlefront in the 
      1991 Gulf War, this time round the world can be 
      assured of an alternative view on the ongoing war," 
      the paper stated.  Excerpts: 
 
  2.   ". . .The UK/U.S. propaganda war strategy has 
      suffered a major setback with Al Jazeera's prominent 
      and competing coverage of the war in Iraq.  While the 
      U.S. has bludgeoned virtually everyone with high- 
      sounding claims of its avowed support for media 
      freedom, events currently unfolding do not exactly 
      manifest Uncle Sam's love for press freedom.  On 
      March 24, Al Jazeera launched an English-language Web 
      site that almost immediately fell victim to hackers. 
      . .  All this because Al Jazeera has broken the 
      U.S./UK propaganda monopoly. . . While the U.S. and 
      its allies were absolutely unchallenged on the 
      propaganda battlefront in the 1991 Gulf War, this 
      time round the world can be assured of an alternative 
      view on the ongoing war." 
 
SULLIVAN