Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned international news network, publicly admitted on Monday that it had installed an undercover reporter inside pro-Israel organizations last year in Washington, D.C., and that it is planning to air a documentary film based on the reporter's work.
The announcement came shortly after a British government regulation agency said Monday it is rejecting complaints against an earlier documentary broadcast by Al Jazeera, in which an undercover reporter joined pro-Israel organizations in the United Kingdom. The British government regulator, Ofcom, said that the network's reporting, which led to the resignation of an Israeli diplomat who was filmed ... critical of Israel's policies, was not anti-Semitic.
In its decision published Monday, Ofcom concluded that the program was not anti-Semitic, but rather, "a serious investigative documentary which explored the actions of the Israeli Embassy and, in particular, its then Senior Political Officer Shai Masot and his links to several political organizations that promote a pro-Israel viewpoint."
Following the announcement, the director of investigative reporting at Al Jazeera Clayton Swisher said during an interview on the network's main Arabic channel that "at the same time we had an undercover [reporter] in Britain, we also had an undercover in the United States." He explained that the network did not want to broadcast materials gathered in Washington before the regulator in Britain released its verdict on the network's reporting in in Britain.
Swisher also said that "at the very same time [as the London investigation] we had an undercover operative working in tandem in Washington. With this U.K. verdict and vindication past us, we can soon reveal how the Israel lobby in America works through the eyes of an undercover reporter," while discussing the subject with online publication The Intercept.
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