Arab TV coverage of the hanging

Saddam hanging on al-Arabiya (picture posted on al-Arabiya site)

Saddam hanging on al-Arabiya (picture posted on al-Jazeera site)

Palestinians watching al-Arabiya (Associated Press photo)

It's interesting that al-Jazeera would use a picture showing someone watching the coverage of Saddam's hanging on its arch-rival al-Arabiya.  In fact, all of the images I've seen of Arab TV coverage of the hanging come from al-Arabiya or from al-Iraqiya, not from al-Jazeera.  According to al-Jazeera, the Shia-controlled government station al-Iraqiya showed footage of the execution combined with images of Iraqis dancing in the streets, while the Sunni stations showed old footage of Saddam the President.  Al-Arabiya showed at least some images from the hanging.   Just a guess - judging by that picture above showing Palestinians (who usually much prefer al-Jazeera) watching al-Arabiya, this seems to have been a ratings winner for al-Arabiya.  I am currently away from the office where I have Arab TV access:  can anyone who was watching let me know (in comments or email) how al-Jazeera, al-Hurra, or any other Arab station you were watching handled the footage?  (Of course, you can already see the al-Iraqiya footage anywhere you want - it's even hosted on Yahoo News.   Even though it stops just short of the actual hanging, it gets most of the way there)

Comments

[brian]

The trial of Saddam and his hanging are illegal under international and iraqi law.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_23651.shtml

Now you may all recall that US refused to joing the ICC because it said it would be used politically against the US by its many enemies. What they didnt say was they intended to commit war crimes,and need the freedom to do so without being bound by any law.

but the Iraqi Higher Criminal court set up by Paul Bremer unlike the ICC has really turned out to be a politically charged kangaroo court. Yet where is this being charged in the media?

Weve watched the socalled leader of the'free world' once again run roughshod over the rule of law, with noone doing anything about it.

[MSK]

Dear AA,

there's already a video of the execution circulating.

You can view it here: http://pandachute.com/videos/leaked_saddam_being_hung_video

The execution comes across as a Shi'ite revenge action - almost exclusively religious chants and phrases. And the hangman didn't even let Saddam finish the shahada before pulling the lever.

Once this is becoming more publicized (and we all know that it'll only be a matter of days) it will re-enforce the notion that the Saddam trial and execution was a purely sectarian (i.e. Kurdish/Shi'ite vs. Sunni) act.

Not exactly the smartest form of PR.

--MSK

www.aqoul.com

[Issa]

ِِAnother thing I've noticed is a remarkable difference between the same AlJazeera and AlJazeera International, the English version transmitted a nonstop sequence of Shiite Iraqis dancing in the street happy for the execution. AlJazeera Arabic hosted dozens of Panarabist and perhaps Baathist writers and thinkers, who repeated to us all the good things Saddam done, and why it's rightly considered a martyr (This is typical of AlJazeera).
It seems that first images of execution were distributed from AlIraqia itself, I think it's state-run TV, this is why all other channels had its footage.
Both alArabyia and Aljazeera showed (a part) of a video of the hanging recorded with a mobile phone.
Some said that airing these scenes was illegal, and of course ethically irresponsible, but you know this is only secondary in this matter

[phillystarr99]

would you mind clarifying who had coverage rights? i thought only iraqi state TV had the "rights" to the coverage.... that's why you have these coverage questions and that's what you see reported in the MSM. The "video spread round the web" is what you see on the mobile phone, making this twist on the incentive for the mobile phone capture more interesting.

[Insider]

AL Arabiya did a brilliant job covering the event. It's coverage was very much balanced and Showed both ends of the spectrum.