DOHA, Qatar, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- "Control Room," a documentary about al-Jazeera's coverage of the Iraq war, reportedly gives few clues about the inner workings of the Arabic TV news channel.
The film by Arab-American documentary-maker Jehane Nougaim, follows al-Jazeera's journalists, producers and translators during March and April 2003 as they report on the war from U.S. Central Command in Qatar, BBC reported Tuesday.
The documentary explores questions about whether al-Jazeera, a controversial news medium branded by the Bush administration as the "mouthpiece of Osama bin Laden," is any more or less one-sided than some American news networks and whether transmission of graphic footage of civilian casualties aggravates already tense situations.
Top-level editorial meetings showing how policy is formed are omitted from the film, however, and the documentary fails to explain al-Jazeera's relationship with its chief backer, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the emir of Qatar.
In the end, "Control Room" gives an Arab perspective on the Iraq war, but little insight into how al-Jazeera works, BBC said.
