Aljazeera network is considering legal action against former British home secretary David Blunkett after he described the network as “an enemy propaganda mechanism”, and encouraged Tony Blair to bomb the television transmitter in Baghdad. Just two weeks after his suggestion, an American aircraft leveled the station’s Baghdad bureau. Tareq Ayoub, An Aljazeera reporter, was killed during the bombing.

Blunkett, who was a member of Blair’s war cabinet in 2003 said Aljazeera was a legitimate target. “There wasn’t a worry from me because I believed that this was a war and in a war you wouldn’t allow the broadcasts to continue taking place,” he said in an interview with Britain’s Channel 4 television.

“Aljazeera Network is outraged at such an attitude toward the free press,” a statement said. “As an international news organisation, Aljazeera Network is obliged by law to address its employees’ increasing concerns for their very lives… We find Mr Blunkett’s allegations and position to be irresponsible and dangerous not only for Aljazeera but for the freedom of media everywhere in the world,” the station added. Aljazeera has been repeatedly criticized by US officials for broadcasting the realities of war while American news outlets weren’t even permitted to show the coffins of US soldiers.

Ahmed al-Sheikh, editor-in-chief of Aljazeera’s Arabic channel, said; “Aljazeera was being targeted at the time because the people who were waging war on Iraq didn’t like what it was showing. We talk about terrorism, this [was] pure terrorism.”
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