Qatar and Saudi Arabia are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region

Pull the plug on Al Jazeera over alleged Qatari ties to ISIS

Broadcast regulators in the U.S and Canada should pull the plug on Al Jazeera after leaked U.S government emails allege the Persian Gulf country is funding ISIS. The latest batch of hacked U.S government emails includes one by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to her campaign chairman suggesting that Qatar is helping to bankroll terrorist atrocities in the middle east and in the west. That email dated August 17, 2014 was sent to John Podesta who was then advisor to Barack Obama. Clinton, who had finished her stint as Secretary by State by then told Podesta, Qatar and Saudi Arabia “are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”

Qatari links to funding a terrorist group guilty of countless atrocities including genocide should be extremely troubling to say the least. In the west, there are other implications given that news network Al Jazeera is owned by the Qatari royal family and has a license to broadcast in the United States and Canada. The idea that any news agency can operate independently of state owners alleged to be involved in crimes against humanity is just not credible. When the English language Al Jazeera news service was licensed for distribution in Canada in 2009, I was CRTC Commissioner and warned the regulator that a news network owned by an authoritarian regime with radically different values to our own, would not be consistent with the standards we expect from domestic services or those from other democratic countries. I wrote a dissenting opinion published November 26th 2009. Is it so hard to imagine that revenues generated from a news service might indirectly or otherwise be used to fund a genocidal group like ISIS? Broadcast regulators should consider suspending Al Jazeera’s broadcast license pending a review of whether of any country that funds terror should be afforded the kind of privileges enjoyed in a free society.

Marc Patrone -- Bio and Archives Marc Patrone has had a long and successful career as a broadcast journalist, columnist and content creator for companies like Sunmedia and Bell Media. His work has been widely distributed and circulated through out the U.S and Canada. He also served as CRTC Commissioner for five years and works as a communications consultant for NY based Third Bridge Consulting. He is a married father of two living in the Toronto area.

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