Talk:Al Jazeera controversies

Call to Truth

Hi all, I'm a long term editor of Wikipedia. Reading through these supposed "controversies and criticism", I see a lot of stuff that could be said about the New York Times, or the Guardian. It is not a controversy, that AJ focuses on Palestinian suffering over Jewish suffering, especially when 10 Palestinians are killed for every one Jewish person. Media outlets can attempt to balance global coverage. Perhaps this is too divisive a place to make the point, but the cricket fixing story is not a controversy.

This article should have a section in the AJ article, with a couple of examples, and a trailer to this article. This article should also be split into "controversies and criticisms", like the links between Qatari funding, and examples of stories, like the cricket fixing story. Peace and Love people. Billyshiverstick (talk) 04:36, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

Al Jazeera is unique, in that it is funded by the government of Qatar, a theocratic monarchy with ongoing human rights concerns, yet has established a widespread global outreach, including in Western liberal democracies.

But this aside, other controversial mass media outlets also have dedicated Wikipedia articles about their controversies and criticisms, such as these articles for criticism of Comcast, criticism of the BBC, Fox News controversies, CNN controversies and more. Neutral Editor 645 (talk) 15:50, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

Would disagree. Most of the criticism here is almost overly one sided and not taken seriously because many of the claims cited have been debunked 2605:4A80:F003:B510:C92B:1FA3:2FAE:73DE (talk) 04:32, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

Read this:

https://www.jns.org/israel-news/wjc-publishes-research-revealing-the-roots-of-wikipedias-anti-israel-bias ~2026-50514-81 (talk) 12:56, 19 September 2026 (UTC)

You've been lied to.

https://www.jns.org/israel-news/wjc-publishes-research-revealing-the-roots-of-wikipedias-anti-israel-bias ~2026-50514-81 (talk) 12:55, 19 September 2026 (UTC)

Edit request: add new first sentence, with mention of Qatari government funding

I propose to add in the following opening sentence: "Al Jazeera Media Network is a Qatari state-funded media conglomorate, primarily known for its news channels Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English."

This sentence would start with mention of the wider Al Jazeera Media Network holding company, as well as important context of its Qatari state-funding (which is a key topic around its controversies and criticisms).

The current opening section of the article confusingly starts by discussing Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English separately, rather than focusing on Al Jazeera as a unified media conglomerate, and also neglects to mention the key point that the media conglomerate receives funding from the Qatari government. Neutral Editor 645 (talk) 15:40, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

Declining this edit request. Please try to comply with EDITXY. IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 02:55, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Split?

WP:Article size strongly suggests a split above 9000 words, a point that has been reached. I would suggest spinning out Israel/Judaism and/or Qatar. Does anyone object to that? FortunateSons (talk) 07:37, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

No need to slit right now. we can consider a solution when it reach 15k words. its not appropriate to spin out just Israel or Qatar. Cinaroot (talk) 07:55, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

Probably should be divided or trimmed already justifies a split, unless there is a specific reason not to. The topics are often treated as standalone discussion areas by RS, and I see no policy-based reason against a split. FortunateSons (talk) 08:05, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

Probably - doesn't already justify a split. Its just as it says probably. We have BBC controversies that have close to 15k words. Right approach now is to trim or delete irrelevant parts. Cinaroot (talk) 08:15, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

That's an argument for splitting that one as well, not for having an article with 9k words and no clear structure. What would be the problem with an Al Jazeera and Qatar or Al Jazeera and Israel article? There are 46 mentions of Qatar spread over the article, regularly intertwining AJ with Qatari diplomacy, and more than 90 mentions of Israel, even ignoring that there are 6! destinct section with significant mention of Israel and/or Jews. From a reader perspective, spinning those out makes sense. FortunateSons (talk) 08:24, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

Word count of `israel` or `Qatar` doesn't matter. The section on Israel or Qatar isnt big enough to justify it as a separate article.

Like i said before- we need to attempt to trim it first. Not create new article.

Besides that - only notable controversy or criticism should be mention on this wiki. Creating a separate article would encourage people to write up all their criticism or grievances about the channel and could lead to violation of WP:STRUCTURE and NPOV Cinaroot (talk) 08:46, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

The Israel sections are 2.3 k words, neutrally spinning it out would be more than sufficient; if you add the antisemitism section, you can get to 2.7 k. That's more than sufficient. The Qatar section is harder to quantify, but would almost certainly meet the DYK criteria for lenght. A seperate article would obviously comply with the same policy restrictions, so there is no reason to believe that the policy applying to that article would differ from those applying here. FortunateSons (talk) 08:55, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

This is 657 words Al Jazeera controversies#Israel - how did you get it as 2.3 k words Cinaroot (talk) 09:07, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

Israeli–Palestinian conflict, The Lobby, Death of Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian Authority are also within the scope. Would naming the suggested article Al Jazeera and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remedy the problem for you? FortunateSons (talk) 09:15, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

No, i dont like this. Another idea i have is to cut as its mentioned in main article - i will try to find other area's that can be cut or moved Cinaroot (talk) 09:19, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

I think this one is kind of useful (to be fair, interesting might be the better term) here. Perhaps cutting it from the main article is better, and keeping it here? FortunateSons (talk) 09:22, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

Aren't we trying to reduce the size of this article? Cutting it from main article doesn't solve any problems. Another idea - is to try to identify which controversy is aljazeera Arabic vs English - and move it there. But we also need to be careful - not to add too much controversy into main article. Cinaroot (talk) 09:27, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

We're tying to do so while perserving as much useful content as possible. I will merge the conflict sections together, perhaps we can identify a few dublicateb sentences that way? FortunateSons (talk) 09:32, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

conflict sections ? i think Al Jazeera controversies#2018 cricket pitch fixing exposé ( seems like a good work al jazeera did )

is Al Jazeera controversies#Death of Shireen Abu Akleh this really a controversy concerning al jazeera ? seems like its a controversy concerning Israel

Like this - many things can be cut i think. Cinaroot (talk) 09:37, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

Sorry, I meant sections related to the Arab-israeli conflict; I have merged those into the same heading. I'm not sure what to do with Antisemitism: Do you think it should be moved there, remain where it is, or be split? . On Shireen, it might be relevant to consider that this isn't a criticsm article, and that controversies where AJ or their staff are victims instead of alleged perpetrators are DUE as well. FortunateSons (talk) 09:42, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

i think Israel should go back to country section. Israeli–Palestinian conflict and Palestinian Authority should be merged and placed in country section with Palestine as section head. Not sure of The Lobby. Antisemitism could be placed within Israel section as a sub.

I also think The Dark Side: Secrets of the Sports Dopers and Shariah and Life could be cut. these programs are not central to the network’s controversies or have limited impact Cinaroot (talk) 15:44, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

I disagree with pretty much all of that: The Israel-Palestinian part has no closer relationship with Palestine than Israel and should therefore not be in the Palestine section, and the Antisemitism isn’t exclusive to Israel and therefore cannot be placed into an Israel section without qualification (see the issue above). Sharia and Life has excellent coverage from international media, and while I have never heard of the doping-section, it seems pretty significant based on what’s written. The need for this kind of trimming was why I though a spin-off was a worthy consideration. Having said that, we have reached a better word count due to your changes, so thank you for helping with this issue! FortunateSons (talk) 16:13, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

In fact - i think what you are suggesting already violate Wikipedia:NPOVFACT Cinaroot (talk) 08:49, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

No, because that article would cover a specific aspect neutrally—or, more precisely, like this article does in the beginning—thereby not having a POV. WP:SPINOFF exists for a reason. FortunateSons (talk) 08:58, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

Requested move 20 August 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. – robertsky (talk) 09:56, 4 September 2025 (UTC)

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Al Jazeera controversies → Reception of Al Jazeera – Per WP:NPOVTITLE, actually shouldn't there be a more neutral title for criticisms of this news outlet? Yes, there are controversies over this news outlet and I see some discussions about AJ's coverage of the I/P conflict and so on, but per policy, actually shouldn't the article be moved to a more neutral title? ZKang123 (talk · contribs) 08:42, 20 August 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 22:01, 27 August 2025 (UTC)

• Oppose. See Category:Journalism controversies by outlet. I'm not opposed to a move in principle, but for the sake of WP:CONSISTENT we shouldn't be moving just this article. ~~ Jessintime (talk) 14:15, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

• I'm actually hoping to propose doing it across for similar articles. But I'm hoping to see consensus for this article first.--ZKang123 (talk · contribs) 07:18, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

• The RM target was originally spelled "Jazerra"; I changed it to Jazeera. Adumbrativus (talk) 05:00, 23 August 2025 (UTC)
• Commment. I'm not sure why "controversies" is not neutral. I don't think you'd argue that there are disputes about and criticism of various aspects of AJ reporting. By adopting this title, we are not taking sides. Also, practically speaking I think it would be next to impossible to move all "[X outlet] controversies" article to a new name. Alaexis_¿question? 13:09, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Media, WikiProject Arab world, WikiProject Television, WikiProject Journalism, and WikiProject Qatar have been notified of this discussion. TarnishedPath^talk 22:02, 27 August 2025 (UTC)

• Comment: I'm not committed to either or, but I heavily agree with User:Alaexis that controversies is a neutral title and doesn't denote either a negative or positive connotation, as opposed to "criticisms of" or something similar. If anything, it should be changed to "Controversies involving Al Jazeera" rather than "reception", which I feel might be a bit vague. "Reception" might also probably change the topic scope, at least slightly. Elspamo4 (talk) 04:45, 28 August 2025 (UTC)
• Comment: The suggested title could be talking about the broadcast signal reception areas. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 05:40, 28 August 2025 (UTC)
• Oppose. It's possible there's a better label for this and the similarly titled articles. "Reception" is not a simple "neutral" replacement for "controversies" but instead describes a different scope. "Controversy" can be non-neutral in a case like Evolution controversy (which is a redirect) but for this and the other journalism articles it seems appropriate, and a better alternative has not been proposed. --MYCETEAE 🍄‍🟫—talk 02:11, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Added More to Lead

Hi. I added a few sentences to the lead summarizing certain sections that are covered in greater depth in the body. I want to invite other editors to weigh in and workshop it with me if possible. Please feel free to add suggestions--I just feel like there needs to be a meatier paragraph up top. Agnieszka653 (talk) 01:26, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

" However, since the founding of the Qatari based media company, there have been controversial events involving Al Jazeera spanning the globe including journalists who have been linked to terror networks and poorly researched news stories that have sparked backlash from sitting government officials."

I propose the following words: " There have been controversial news stories that have sparked backlash from government officials." The use of 'terror networks' is against WP:NPOV and WP:CONTENTIOUS

"Al Jazeera journalists have also been unlawfully detained in certain parts of the world, and reporters and the network have been banned from covering current world events by certain countries." would read better and be more concise if it were "Al Jazeera journalists have also been unlawfully detained in certain parts of the world, and reporters and the network have been banned from some countries". Dualpendel (talk) 13:08, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Ok. I like some of this--I would however like some mention of the affiliations with groups like Hamas and Al Qaeda which are mentioned below. If we can't say "terror network" how do we address this portion of the body in the lead? Agnieszka653 (talk) 16:43, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

See CNN controversies BBC controversies

Its should be presented like this. This is a controversy article. Anything we write in lede should be carefully written. As it could be un-due without context and opposing views Cinaroot  💬 13:46, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

It doesn't look like BBC controversies has a lead section at all-and CNN's is a single sentence about being the subject of many controversies but not much else. All I was trying to do was summarize what is already in the body so anyone who skims the page will have idea of the page contents. Controversies is a broad term and I don't think it's undue to have a summary of things Al Jazeera has been involved in--and balance would be including that their journalists have been the subjects of unlawful detainment but also been involved in scandals including affiliations with militant groups which are covered in detail below. Agnieszka653 (talk) 23:30, 3 January 2026 (UTC)