Bahrain Mirror: The US President Donald Trump signed on Monday (August 13, 2018) a $716 billion defense bill which includes a provision that will require outlets like Qatar's Al-Jazeera for the first time to start reporting regularly to the FCC on its funding and ownership.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers pressed the Department of Justice last March to order Al-Jazeera to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), citing "radical anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel" content.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2019 in article 1085 requires U.S.-based foreign media outlets to report to the FCC within 60 days - and then twice yearly thereafter - on their relationship to and funding by "foreign principals," that is, foreign governments or political parties. The FCC must report the information to Congress and post it on its website.

Journalist Zaid Benjamin posted on his Twitter account saying "President Trump will review the legal status of the Qatari Al-Jazeera Channel and its branches and will impose registering its employees at the ministry of justice in the US on the foreign agents list (attempt to influence the US public opinion with a push from a foreign government) due to their connections with the Qatari government".

Al-Jazeera channel has issued a documentary revealing the penetration of the Israeli lobby in official agencies and institutions in Washington, from which it received many threats from Israeli and American parties due to information it obtained. The channel has already published an investigation about the Israeli British lobby.

Zaid Benjamin reported from US media outlets that "this addition in the budget came after Qatar network penetrated the Jewish lobby, which many [Americans] legislators considered spying on American citizens, pointing out to the [role] of the Qatari Embassy in Washington in facilitating the residency of a  journalist who played a key role in making the report one month ago."

A US website said that Al-Jazeera press office did not respond to queries about the implications of the NDAA provision by press time.

They claimed in a letter by the MPs to Attorney General Jeff Sessions that "We find it troubling that the content produced by this network often directly undermines American interests with favorable coverage of U.S. State Department-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's branch in Syria."

"Furthermore, Al-Jazeera's record of radical anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel broadcasts warrants scrutiny from regulators to determine whether this network is in violation of U.S. law."

Al-Jazeera called the move "shocking," stressing in a statement that it "views such calls as a direct attempt to curtail media freedom and restrict journalists from carrying out their duties, a right enshrined in the constitution of the United States of America."

The statement further read "This call comes at a time when attacks on journalists and media organizations around the world are at an all-time high."

Arabic Version