P14:Layout 1
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2017 ANALYSIS THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF ESTABLISHED 1961 Founder and Publisher YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN Editor-in-Chief ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432 ADVERTISING : 24835616/7 FAX : 24835620/1 CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163 ACCOUNTS : 24835619 COMMERCIAL : 24835618 P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait. E MAIL :[email protected] Website: www.kuwaittimes.net Factbox Media struggles for balance in covering hostile Trump admin acing a White House which has been unrelent- ing in its attacks on the media, news organiza- Ftions are struggling to find the right balance in covering President Donald Trump’s administration. Reporters and media groups are increasingly finding they are part of the story, after Trump’s denunciation of “fake news” and his branding of media groups as “the enemy of the people.” Most news organizations have promised to fulfill their responsibility to report aggressively, without being vindictive. “The goal is to be tough, but to be fair. The fairness part is an important part of the equation,” said Richard Benedetto, an adjunct profes- sor of journalism at American University who was a White House correspondent for USA Today. The White House may have some justification for claim- ing the press is unfair: an NBC survey last month found 53 percent of Americans believed the media was exaggerating problems in the Trump administra- Turkey, US on collision course over YPG tion. “There seems to be a lack of concern about being fair,” Benedetto said. “It’s become kind of per- urkey is ruling out compromise with the United testy relationship with President Barack Obama, has wel- agree,” said one Turkish official familiar with the talks. “They sonal.” Before Trump’s inauguration, Politico writer States over the involvement of Kurdish militia fighters comed Trump’s election as a chance for a fresh start. But said ‘we understand your sensitivities, we don’t recognise Jack Shafer said the press “ought to start thinking of Tin an assault in Syria, an obstacle for Washington’s the two NATO allies appear to be on a collision course over their (YPG) territorial ambitions’.” Turkey and its Syrian rebel covering Trump’s Washington like a war zone, where plan to deploy its strongest allies on the ground in a deci- strategy in Syria. force was “ready at any time to do Raqqa, after clearing al- conflict follows conflict, where the fog prevents the sive showdown with Islamic State. Donald Trump has made US Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, who Bab,” the official said. A second senior Turkish official, exas- collection of reliable information directly from the defeating Islamic State one of the key goals of his presiden- commands the US-led coalition effort against Islamic State perated at US willingness to work with a NATO ally’s ene- combatants, where the assignment is a matter of life cy, and his new administration received a draft Pentagon in Iraq and Syria, told a Pentagon news briefing on Tuesday my, said some in Washington argued they had already or death.” plan on Monday to accelerate the campaign. a role for the Kurds was still in Washington’s plan. “There invested too much in the YPG to pull out. But he said mili- Raqqa in Syria, one of Islamic State’s two de facto capi- are going to be Kurds assaulting Raqqa for sure,” he said. tary planning was still under way and US generals had “tak- Dogged, and Impartial tals along with Mosul in Iraq, is expected to be the scene of “The number, the size of them, and how many Kurdish en all this (Turkish) feedback back to Washington.” Reuters editor-in-chief Steve Adler said the news the final battle to crush the jihadists’ self-proclaimed units are participating... I can’t really say right now.” agency planned to do its job in Washington as it does Caliphate sometime this year, after a US-backed Iraqi gov- He said he had seen no evidence linking Washington’s Local Control in other countries where governments are hostile to ernment assault on Mosul already under way since October. Kurdish allies to attacks on Turkey. He did not specifically Turkey says it has another 7,000 trained Syrian rebels the press. The agency responds to difficult conditions But putting together a united ground force to take Raqqa name the YPG, which fights as part of a US-backed alliance ready on top of the 3,000-strong force active in Euphrates “by doing our best to protect our journalists, by has so far proven a confounding task in Syria, where the called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that also Shield, to which Arab fighters from the US-backed SDF recommitting ourselves to reporting fairly and hon- United States, Turkey, Russia, Iran and Arab states have all includes Arabs. Turkish officials say the links between the would be welcome. “We told them we have enough forces, estly, by doggedly gathering hard-to-get information backed local forces in a multi-sided civil war since 2011. All YPG and PKK are beyond dispute and that the group’s enough Free Syrian Army. Your generals can see them with - and by remaining impartial,” Adler said in a January the foreign powers oppose Islamic State, but their Syrian advances will fuel anti-Kurdish sentiment in predominantly their own eyes,” the first Turkish official said of the discus- memo to staff. proxies have mainly fought against one another. Arab parts of Syria such as Raqqa, and threaten Syria’s terri- sions with US counterparts. “Everything needed militarily Karen North, a professor at the University of Turkey, with the second largest army in NATO, is torial integrity. was concretely explained. They were briefed on the num- Southern California’s Annenberg School, said adamant that Washington should switch support for the bers, the strategy and the map.” objectivity has become complicated as more jour- planned Raqqa offensive from the Kurdish YPG militia to Many Alternatives One possible compromise solution may be that the nalists feel a need to connect with readers by offer- Syrian rebels Turkey has trained and led against Islamic Turkey entered Syria last August in support of a 3,000- force that assaults Raqqa, potentially including the YPG, ing personal thoughts on social media. North said State for the past year. For the US administration, nervous strong force of Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels, in an opera- quickly withdraws and turns the city over to local control, some reporters feel a need to rebut the president about whether the Turkish-backed force is large enough tion called Euphrates Shield. It took Jarablus on the including the largely Arab forces backed by Turkey. “I’m not on his favorite platform, Twitter. “We have the pres- and sufficiently trained, the decision sets Trump’s wish for Euphrates river, cleared Islamic State fighters from a rough- really sure it really matters what the composition is of the quick battlefield victories against the need to maintain its ly 100 km stretch of the border, then moved south to Al- force that goes there to liberate it,” said Townsend, the US ident speaking directly to the people through strategic alliance with Turkey. Bab, a strategic town now all but secured after three commander. “What matters really in my mind is the com- Twitter,” North said. In the fast-paced Twittersphere, Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian extension of the months of fighting against Islamic State. position of the force that stays there and governs and she said, reporters are not just churning out facts but Kurdish PKK militant group, which has fought an insur- Turkey’s aim was also to stop the YPG from crossing the secures Raqqa after it’s liberated from ISIS.” A similar agree- “they’re also putting out their opinion through social gency in Turkey’s southeast since 1984 and is considered a Euphrates westwards and linking three mainly Kurdish can- ment in Manbij, some 120 km northwest of Raqqa, quickly media”. North noted that news organizations are also terrorist group by both the United States and European tons it holds in northern Syria, preventing it from carving broke down. The YPG helped capture the city from Islamic struggling for ways to keep the attention of their Union. “Our soldiers will not be fighting together with peo- out a self-governing territory analogous to Iraq’s State last year in a US-backed campaign operating under viewers and readers. “Especially with the internet, ple who shot us and killed our soldiers and are trying to kill autonomous Kurdish region. Turkey fears that would the SDF umbrella, on the understanding with Turkey that it with digital media, news has to compete with enter- us,” one senior Turkish security official, briefed on recent embolden its own large Kurdish minority to try to forge a would then withdraw. Turkey says the YPG remains in the tainment,” she said. “So there’s a huge mandate now meetings between Turkish and US strategists, told Reuters. similar territory inside Turkey. One plan Ankara has pre- city, and the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels attacked for news to be entertaining or at least to be engaging “This message was delivered to the Americans.” sented to Washington would have a Turkish-led FSA force nearby villages held by the Kurdish militia on Wednesday, a in a way that draws attention.” President Tayyip Erdogan reinforced the point on of around 10,000 push south to Raqqa from the YPG-held spokesman for the local authorities in the city said. Turkish Tuesday, saying Turkey “cannot accept” any alliance with border town of Tal Abyad.