UAE slams Al Jazeera’s coverage of Rabaa anniversary

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash severely criticised Al Jazeera’s coverage of the third anniversary of the Rabaa massacre in Egypt where more than 1,000 protesters were killed and thousands were wounded and arrested, the Huffington Post reported yesteday.

Through a tirade of tweets, Gargash accused Al Jazeera of siding with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt. “Al Jazeera marginalised itself when it chose to be the MB’s channel after it had been an effective Arabic one. This is what came to my mind when I watched Al Jazeera’s coverage of Rabaa.”

He also tweeted: “It is sad that this is the end of a top Arabic media project. It has wrong political reading for the incidents and it betted on a partisan basis when it narrowed itself to become a statement of a certain party watched only by its affiliates.”

Al Jazeera had broadcast a series of reports and films about the military coup in Egypt and the events that following, including the peaceful protests which were violently dispersed causing thousands of deaths and injuries according to rights groups.

Thanks to social media, hundreds of video clips and photographs, which documented the unprecedented violations against civilians and peaceful protesters, were spread all over the globe.