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| Aljazeera TV's Ghada Owais (left) and Khadija Bengana |
Aljazeera TV anchorwoman Ghada Owais publicly complained today of being
the victim of social network abuse, denying any connection to social networking
accounts bearing her name.
A million dollar bounty on the head of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
was recently publicized on fake Facebook and Twitter accounts ascribed to her.
In an interview to Aljazeera.net
website, Owais said news of the
purported reward was widely circulated by “up to 50 Arabic -- not counting
other French and English -- websites and news outlets that failed to verify its
authenticity.”
She said the “painful abuse misled people and diverted attention from my
coverage (last month) of the humanitarian suffering of the Syrian people in a refugee
camp in Jordan and in Aleppo.”
Owais also said her impersonation on Twitter and Facebook undermined her credibility
“as a human being who forswears violence and as a journalist committed to
balanced, objective and accurate reporting.”
In many cases, high-quality Twitter and Facebook accounts are nearly
impossible to discern from the real thing.
But Aljazeera portal said Facebook management agreed to permanently remove
all accounts impersonating Ms Owais “save one account that will carry her name
and be managed by Aljazeera for now.”
The 35-year-old Owais, who is Lebanese and read mass media at the
Lebanese University, joined Aljazeera TV in 2006.
Her Algerian colleague at Doha-headquartered Aljazeera TV, Khadija
Bengana, was subjected to
similar social networking abuse last January, when automated false accounts bearing
her name carried statements lauding the "humanity" of Adolf Hitler,
glorifying Nazism and calling for holy war against Israel.
