Concern over female al-Jazeera journalists

The decision by five female journalists to resign over their treatment by management at the Doha-based al-Jazeera satellite channel ( Diary , 29 June) causes us great concern. Last autumn, 11 of the channel's 15 female journalists lodged a sex discrimination complaint over equality issues in the newsroom. More than a third of these have now resigned in protest at the failure to heed their complaints. News of the resignations has been widely reported, yet media calls to the station are largely ignored and the Qatari media have not reported the story. Qatar signed the UN convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women only last year. The dispute has been misreported as a row over dress codes and treated by some newspapers as a spat over fashion. The truth runs far deeper. The statistics of how women at al-Jazeera fare in its employment cast a poor light on a channel which was a refreshing change when it came on the scene in 1996. Its code of ethics talks about acknowledging a mistake when it occurs and standing by colleagues in the profession. Al-Jazeera should heed the complaints, listen to the women who remain at the channel, and make suitable redress to the five who have resigned. Louis Charalambous Simons Muirhead & Burton , Jeremy Dear National Union of Journalists , Aidan White International Federation of Journalists , Gavin Millar QC, Helena Kennedy, Vera Baird QC, Professor Roy Greenslade, Heather Brooke