WASHINGTON, Oct 10: The White House on Wednesday called U.S. television executives to urge that they “exercise judgment” in broadcasting statements by Osama bin Laden that may include coded incitements to violence.

“Osama bin Laden’s message is propaganda, calling on people to kill Americans. At worst, he could be issuing orders to his followers to initiate such attacks,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

He said US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice held a conference call with the networks, and focused her concern on pre-recorded messages from Osama, such as one issued following Sunday’s launch of US and British air strikes on Afghanistan.

“Dr Rice has asked the networks to exercise judgment about how these pre-recorded, pre-taped messages will air. She stressed that she was making a request and that editorial decisions can only be made by the media,” Fleischer said.

Network executives said they agreed to review incoming feeds of such statements before airing them — rather than simply broadcasting the feed as it came in — and would use editorial judgment in deciding what to broadcast.

Powell slams Al-Jazeera: Qatar’s satellite television station al-Jazeera is giving too much air time to Muslim extremists and others with radical views in its coverage of the US-led war, Secretary of State Colin Powell alleged on Wednesday.

Powell said the 24-hour Arabic-language news station, which has tremendous viewership throughout the Middle East, should offer more balanced programming, though he did not comment directly on al-Jazeera’s repeated airing of videotapes featuring Osama bin Laden and his deputies.

“We have raised with Qatar’s authorities some of our concerns with respect to al-Jazeera,” Powell said, noting that the outlet station “covers a large part of the Arab world and it’s an important station.”

“Our concern, however, is that they give an undue amount of time and attention to some of the vitriolic, irresponsible kinds of statements,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” programme.

Powell, who was interviewed by al-Jazeera last month, raised the matter last week with the station’s main backer, Qatari Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

“The secretary met ... expressed a concern about some of the inflammatory rhetoric that was coming out on al-Jazeera and pointed it out to the emir as the party who is most responsible for their operations,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

QATAR DEFENDS AL JAZEERA: Qatar cited the freedom of the press Wednesday in its defence of the Doha-based satellite television station Al-Jazeera against US charges of “inflammatory rhetoric” in its coverage of the Afghan crisis.