Televised interview on Qatar’s Al Jazeera: The channel and Macron received severe reactions
About the latter televised interview of the French President yesterday, Qatari news channel Al Jazeera and Emmanuel Macron are facing severe reactions.
Spectators expressed their thoughts on social media on what they call to be the channel’s hypocritical decision to air the interview with Macron after that the outlet was one of the principal voices in the campaign for boycotting French products.
Certain debated that the choice of Macron to address the Muslim world via the Qatari channel was satisfying the network for its hostility speech and provocation on problems in the region.
The Qatari channel’s numbers showed their new position shortly after the interview. On his part, Yasser Abu-Hilala, ex-managing director to Al Jazeera and the current consultant reported that the campaign of French products boycott succeeded. He also said: This is how we gave Macron a lesson. The value of the boycott is to be of limited duration and limited goals. An absolute boycott is worthless.
Whereas, Journalist Shaikh Walid Al-Salek declared that Al Jazeera’s coverage during the past weeks provoked violence in the hearts of Muslims in France and stimulated the phenomenon of Islamophobia. He said on Twitter: Abu Hilala wanted, by a political decision from Hamad, to stop the battle with Macron … [Destroy] the Brotherhood organization, true Islam did not witness anything more dangerous than it.
Furthermore, another Twitter user viewed that the TV interview with Macron on Al-Jazeera is just a commercial deal, and he accused the channel of considering the interview a scoop for itself in exchange for Al Jazeera to relieve pressure on France. He also said: This scene brings us back to the exclusive scenes that were shown on Al-Jazeera by Al-Qaeda to broadcast its inflammatory messages to their sleeper cell.
Otherwise, Sources near to Macron stated that the French president tries, in this long interview, to clarify his vision calmly, with his intention to show that his statements about fighting isolationism have been distorted and (his statements) about cartoons are often manipulated.
Macron has been also criticized for his decision to appear on Al Jazeera that is considered by many a propaganda tool for extremists and Turkey, which is a country currently in conflict now with France.
Moreover, an Arab journalist criticized Macron, and said that he could’ve given a press conference to Muslim journalists rather than perceived as rewarding the radicals who made a mockery of his interview. While certain Arab media journalists were actually shocked; and one appealed Macron as an idiot.
He also added: How do you call to fight back radicalism, and your choice is to be featured on the most radical media channel in the Middle East? He thinks he is using them. The truth is that they used him. He rewarded the people who for days celebrated the killing of Samuel Paty, and demanded revenge from France and its president, now they say publicly; look we brought him to his knees.
In fact, Macron made his only interview to a journalist from Al-Jazeera Arabic channel, which is famous for being the platform for extremist Muslims. Despite that Macron defended his position that he was not against Muslims, but its message was not significant to Al-Jazeera’s audience and its journalists, who reflected their appreciation that Macron acknowledged and apologized to Muslims. It was not precise, Macron and during his interview tried to explain the values of freedom in France, however the truth was not crucial for Al-Jazeera and its audience.
Indeed, Al Jazeera televised the interview last Saturday at 16:00 GMT and lasted for about 50 minutes. Actually, it is the first interview led by the French president since the start of the anti-France campaign by Qatar and its ally Turkey. Radical media continued to report statements attributed to President Macron that he defended the publication of the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad after the murder of a teacher next to Paris.
