By Kevin McCauley
Wadah Khanfa, who has led Al Jazerra since 2003, has resigned his post as head of the Arab TV network that viewed is viewed in more than 25 nations.
The decision follows a WikiLeaks disclosure that Khanfa met with a U.S. intelligence officer to discuss what the American government viewed as disturbing content, according to a report by Yahoo’s Dylan Stableford.
The U.S. diplomatic cable reports that Khanfa agreed to remove the offending content over two or three days.
In his “Dear Colleagues” memo, Khanfa makes no mention of the WikiLeaks disclosure, opting instead for “I have decided to move on.”
He takes credit for establishing Al Jazerra as a “global media leader,” and notes inroads make in the U.S. despite political opposition.
“This was no easy feat - not long ago, then U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld unfairly attacked our coverage of Iraq while today, U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, hails our news coverage. We were not weakened by Rumsfeld's comments nor made complacent by Clinton's. Al Jazeera is still independent and its integral coverage has not changed.”
Khanfa notes that “authoritarian regimes were terrified at the birth of this new institution and they quickly went on the offensive from trying to discredit our reportage and staff through disinformation to lodging official protests with the Qatari government.
“When this did not stop our reporting, they started harassing our correspondents, detaining our staff and closing our offices. The only way they could stop us was by jamming our satellite signal. Yet we remained steadfast in our editorial policy - in fact, each attempt to silence us further emboldened us and increased our resolve,” he wrote.
Khanfa has been replaced by Sheik Ahmad bin Jasem bin Muhammad Al-Thani, who is part of the royal family of Qatar.
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