Wadah Khanfar, seated behind a vast desk and surrounded by TV screens, deep leather sofas and a wall of global media awards, always cut an impressive figure in his director-general’s office at al-Jazeera headquarters in the Qatari capital, Doha.
However, his career at the top of the most important news organization in the Arab world ended on Tuesday when he was replaced by a member of the Qatari royal family. It was an abrupt and dramatic move at a time of unprecedented turmoil across the Middle East.
Khanfar, credited with revolutionizing the Arab media landscape, said he was resigning after eight years that consolidated the satellite network’s reputation and his own highly influential position.
The new boss is Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, a little-known executive at Qatargas and a member of the fabulously wealthy Gulf state’s ruling dynasty.
It is thought that Khanfar had become too independent a figure for the Qataris, and that he had come under pressure from them. Al-Jazeera has recently been accused of pulling its punches over the uprising in Bahrain, where Saudi Arabia dominates regional policy. Al-Jazeera’s Lebanon chief, Ghassan Bin Jiddo, resigned in April, apparently in disagreement over coverage of some of the revolts.
However, on Tuesday night, Khanfar denied speculation his departure was linked to outside pressure from the Qatar royal family, the US or anyone else.
“I have spent eight years with the network. We have been talking in this part of the world about change, about presidents who stay for decades in their posts. I thought maybe it is good to give an example as well, while the network is at the peak of its performance. It’s the right moment,” he told reporters.
The Palestinian-born journalist said his resignation had “nothing to do with any of the speculation” swirling on Twitter, and said he agreed “a couple of months ago” with al-Jazeera’s board to step down.
“It’s seismic,” said one journalist on the al-Jazeera English channel. “We are all in shock.”
Arab sources close to the Qatari government said the move had been discreetly planned six months ago.
Al-Jazeera, owned by the emir, broke the mould of Arabic media organizations that were bankrolled by and subservient to governments or censors when it was set up in 1996. Often technically brilliant and highly partisan, it has outperformed itself in this extraordinary year of Arab uprisings with the slogan — cleverly echoing the battle cry of past revolutionary struggles — that “the coverage continues.”
Khanfar’s resignation letter was clearly written with a view to fixing his legacy as the man who made al-Jazeera: “Authoritarian regimes were terrified at the birth of this new institution and they quickly went on the offensive,” he wrote.
Asked what he was going to do now, he said: “I’m going to continue in the same spirit of al-Jazeera. I’m going to very soon announce something related to it, related to the media and the ethics and standards of the profession.”
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