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Islamic groups experts discuss use of media by Al-Qa’idah in the Maghreb

BBC Monitoring

In its "Issue of Tonight" programme, 2200 gmt, 6 July 2007, Al-Jazeera Maghreb discusses the use of media by Al-Qa'idah Organisation in the Land of Islamic Maghreb, the former Salafi Group for Call and Combat, GSPC, in Algeria, following the reception of a video tape by Al-Jazeera that showed Jihadist material.

The discussion starts with a video report on the Al-Qa'idah's videotape. The report highlights the resort to media productions by Islamist groups in the light of the "lack of coverage" by Algerian media. The report also highlights the "quality" of the productions, compared with the recordings issued by "the mother organization", Bin-Ladin's Al-Qa'idah "in Afghanistan".

The report's video footage shows unmasked armed gunmen on their way to carry out an attack. The footage also showed an attack on a car followed by the militants' jubilation while they are holding the belongings of a policeman.

Al-Jazeera Maghreb hosts Abdelilah al-Jawhari, ! a journalist and film critic from Morocco; Anne Judy Celli (as transliterated), expert in Islamic Groups in Paris, and Houcine Boulehia, expert in Algerian armed Islamic groups and editor-in-chief of Akhbar Al-Osbou newspaper.

Celli says that the use of media tactics is not new to Islamic groups, given the huge leap in media technology, especially following the war in Afghanistan in 2001. Celli also says that these groups have developed media strategies that are used as part of their psychological warfare and political propaganda. She adds that the war in Iraq is one of the factors that increased this trend.

Al-Jawhari refers to a paradox in the Islamic groups as they "prohibit all what is related to images, but during their so-called war, they legalize every thing". He adds that Islamist groups deal "pragmatically" to propagate their message, since this has so far proven effective. Al-Jawhari also says that given the "rampant" illiteracy in society, one image! is "stronger than one thousand words".

Boulehia says that the use of image dates back to the 90s. He also says that the Islamic groups aim to convey different messages to the public. They tell the people that they are active, can strike at will and, most importantly, that the "regime does not tell the truth to the people". He adds that the groups also use media in their recruitment drives.

Al-Jawhari says that the increasing trends by official Arab TV stations to "conceal the truth" pushes ordinary people to "believe whatever they see" from these sources. He also compares this to the coverage of 11 September attacks and their effect on the American public, who "interacted positively" with their government during the crisis.

Boulehia says that the "media blackout" is not deliberately carried out by the state. He adds that the state can not broadcast whatever it does, either due to security reasons or due to the operational circumstances. He cites the example of the search operation carried out by the Algerian army at the ! moment [against Al-Qa'idah hideouts in the Berber areas]. He says the nature of the operation does not ensure the availability of material to broadcast. He also adds that on the other hand, the authorities do not forbid Algerian papers to publish stories or images of militant groups.

Al-Jawhari says that the TV stations should inform their audiences well adding that resorting to media blackouts "weakens" the credibility of the TV stations. He notes that because of the official censorship, "Arab youth do not filter what they see", no matter how falsified or empty the content is.

Source: Al-Jazeera TV, Doha, in Arabic 2200 gmt 6 Aug 07

 

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