A question of ethics?

Via Roy Greenslade.


It is a while since Western journalists have been given access to Al Qaeda.In fact it may well have been the Indy's Robert Fisk who last was given some serious access to the organisation when he interviewed Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan in the laste 1990's.

However Sky news are reporting that

A new video, purporting to come from al Qaeda, has invited journalists to send questions to the organisation's number two, Ayman al Zawahri.Analysts suggest the invitation to an interview is a new twist in a campaign to reach a broader audience and represents an attempt by Zawahri to present himself as a sophisticated leader rather than a terrorist.

So should journalists take up the offer or is this being too close to terrorists.Personally I think it is the duty of a journalist to get the perspective from the other side.Fisk's interview with Bin Laden,well before the 9/11 attacks,gave an insight into the organisation's motivations rihty or wrongly in its argument with the West.

This culd be an interesting development