Veteran television newsman Manu Padayachee surprised many last year by joining Arabic propaganda station Al-Jazeera as a senior editor. What is not surprising however, is that Padayachee has already resigned.
I caught some of what Padayachee said on SABC3 last night. Padayachee was not very complementary about the Arab world in general, or al-Jazeera in particular. He said that the Arab world has become more repressive and spoke of the difficulties facing non Muslims (or non practicing Muslims) living in the Arab world. He said that things are getting worse.
Padayachee bemoaned the economic exploitation of foreigners from places like Nepal. The foreigners are paid a "pittance" for their manual labour. Journalists generally buy into the farce and do not speak out. There is a distubing level of dishonesty with the way that the rest of the world plays down the abuses that take place in the Arab world. Al-Jazeera was described as openly biased. Padayachee expressed regret at the lack of honest debate within al-Jazeera; he couldn't be part of it anymore, and that is why he left.
Finally, Padayachee noted that the Arab world persistently buys American goods; this despite the "rampant anti-Americanism" that pervades their society.
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