[bbctvtechop]

As much as I respect Al Jaz's work, they haven't really done themselves any favours in the language used in their press release quotes by CNN.

[Stuart]

The Israeli Government will shut down Al Jazeera in the country.

I watch AJE quite often as they have some excellent documentaries and report on topics all around the world.

I've never noticed any particular bias in their news reports about Gaza. I think they are the only channel with reporters actually on the ground in Gaza as they lived there before the war.

I appreciate they can remove channels from EPGs, block the website and scramble the signal in Israel, but as it's being broadcast to all the surrounding countries, then surely there would be some overspill of the signal?

I doubt it has high viewing figures in Israeli homes, so it does seem rather like using the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut.

[bkman1990]

I watch Al Jazeera sometimes as well. It is a great channel which has great journalism standards applied to it's work.

Although I have not watched the channel since the war started between Israel and Gaza.

I mostly get that news from other sources like CNN, BBC News, RTÉ News and The Guardian most of the time.

This news of Al Jazeera's closure in Israel is quite alarming though. It does limit the freedoms of their journalists to hold the Israeli government to account for their role in the war. If the closure of Al Jazeera's offices in Israel increases the viewership of the channel in other countries as a result of this intervention from the Israeli government; I would not be surprised to find out that the eventual increase in viewers to the channel will amplify it's voice a lot more against the crimes of Israel in the near future.

[thePineapple]

I think it's fair to say that Al Jazeera has taken a strong editorial stance on what they call the "genocide in Gaza". And regardless of whether you subscribe to that term or not, their reporting on the ground has been unrivalled - I dare say they have the biggest operation in Palestine of any international news agency. They've been vital in getting information out - and from a news gathering perspective, I imagine other outlets (BBC, etc.) find their output invaluable because it's fairly reputable.

I think anyone in support of press freedoms will find Israel's decision concerning - and I feel that Al Jazeera will robustly challenge the decision on air (if they're not already).

[HTVbest]

The UK shut down RT so let's not throw stones here!

[Stuart]

The UK shut down RT so let's not throw stones here!

RT is still operating. The Ofcom licence to broadcast in the UK was withdrawn as part of sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

Different stones, different reasons. Not that I ever watched it. Qatar haven't invaded anybody, or been the subject of any international sanctions as far as I know.

[Stooky Bill]

Yes there is a difference between what happened to RT and what has just happened to Al Jazeera.

RT lost a lot of it's distribution due to international sanctions which meant that a lot of western companies weren't able to do business with them. This had the knock on effect that Ofcom and other regulators weren't able to license them either. As far as I know they aren't banned from having reporters in the UK or anywhere else. Though of course I would have thought it's tricky to do so.

Al Jazeera is essentially a third party reporting in a conflict, they're being expelled from the area and the channels are having their carriage removed. Although of course it's not entirely a third party because of Qatars involvement in the situation. However AJ has always had independence from the Qatari Royal Family who fund it.

They are different situations, one is a removal of support for a country that invaded another. The other is removal of news access by a country that is (I'll be careful!) at war with a neighbouring territory.

The equivalent would be Russia banned the BBC from the country, which they have in respect of distributing their channels and website, but they haven't banned anyone from reporting from Russia.

It's the reporting restriction that's the issue really, I don't know how much AJ was watched in Israel, AFAIK they don't have a version in Hebrew. But it's very difficult in a country so small to totally ban a channel like that when neighbouring ones haven't, and there are other external news sources for the Israelis, I'm not aware of any other broadcasts that have been restricted