Entered into the database on Friday, November 25th, 2005 @ 11:56:22 MST
Staff at Arabic news broadcaster al-Jazeera have held protests over
UK media reports that US President George W Bush wanted to attack its Qatar
HQ. About 100 employees have signed a petition demanding an end to "attacks
and incitement against al-Jazeera". Washington called the report outlandish after it appeared in the Daily Mirror.
The UK has warned the media not to publish a document said to record the threat
- which some correspondents say may have been intended as a joke. Editors have been told they could be prosecuted under the Official Secrets
Act if they break the ban and publish the leaked document. Work stopped in Qatar as well as at its al-Jazeera's foreign bureaux in several
cities for a 15-minute symbolic protest about the issue. The station - which plans to start an English-language version next year -
has been repeatedly accused by Washington of bias and undermining its "war
on terror". It is often first to broadcast statements by al-Qaeda leaders, footage of anti-US
attacks in Iraq and apparently heavy-handed action by US forces. Staff repeated calls for an investigation into the bombing of their offices
in Afghanistan and Baghdad by US forces - which led the death of one of their
colleagues, reporter Tarek Ayoub. The US says the attacks were a mistake, but al-Jazeera insists the location
of its offices was well known.
