Unfortunately, false accusations sometimes stick. American officials kept calling al-Jazeera, the leading Arab television station, a mouthpiece for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network. It did broadcast the bin Laden tapes, first questioned but later judged to be authentic. But al-Jazeera is not owned or sponsored or controlled by the terrorists. It is an independent station, started with a generous grant from the government of Qatar, where its broadcasts originate. It is said to be heard and watched by 40 million people throughout the Arab world.

It’s easy to see why the United States government and the new interim government in Iraq don’t think much of al-Jazeera. Besides broadcasting the bin Laden tapes, it carries scenes of civilian death and devastation from U.S. bomb and rocket attacks and hostages being threatened with execution.

Unlike many government-operated news outlets, it publishes the bad news as well as the good news.

A recent article on its English-language Web site began: “The US-installed interim Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi…” And an al-Jazeera commentary recently called the relationship between the interim Iraqi government and the U.S. army in Iraq “deeply controversial.”

The prime minister now has closed down al-Jazeera’s Baghdad bureau for a month. His interior minister accused the station of “showing a lot of crimes and criminals on TV,” promoting kidnapping, and presenting “a bad picture about Iraq and about Iraqis.” He said the shutdown would “give the station a chance to readjust their policy.”

While the Bush administration denied any part in the shutdown, its officials certainly set the pattern. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had accused al-Jazeera of “consistently lying” and “working in concert with terrorists.” Secretary of State Colin Powell had “intense and candid” discussions with government of Qatar about al-Jazeera’s news policies.

The station has been in trouble before. Saddam Hussein closed it down in 2002. The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council barred its reporters for a month from council offices and news conferences. As in the past, al-Jazeera keeps going despite the closing of its Baghdad bureau, doing it “the hard way,” by getting the news from other sources. And the perceived discrimination against the Arab station merely burnishes its image among its vast audience.

In the face of criticism, al-Jazeera has adopted a code of ethics and has stopped broadcasting actual executions. But it continues to present the news from an Arab viewpoint, fast, reasonably accurately, and little more slanted than some American television with its pride in “our” troops. Its new but lagging competitor, the U.S. created and financed al-Hurra station based in Virginia, took three or four days to report the news of the al-Jazeera shutdown.

Instead of trying to punish al-Jazeera, the United States and the interim Iraqi government should be encouraging this breakaway from the standard Arab news organizations, with their self censorship and their obsequious attitudes toward their governments.