As many as 22 Al Jazeera employees have quit since the overthrow of Mohammad Mursi, amid concern over the channel’s alleged bias towards the Muslim Brotherhood and its coverage of Egypt.

Criticism over the channel’s editorial line, the way it covered events in Egypt, and allegations that journalists were instructed to favor the Brotherhood are said to be the main reasons behind the mass resignations.

As many as 22 Al Jazeera staff resigned on Monday, Gulf News reported, but other media said only seven had left the broadcaster.

Al Jazeera correspondent Haggag Salama resigned accusing the station of “airing lies and misleading viewers”, Gulf News reported. The newspaper also said that four Egyptian members of editorial staff at the network’s headquarters in Doha had resigned in protest.

Al Jazeera anchor Karem Mahmoud said he left because of the channel’s editorial line over recent events in Egypt.

“I felt that there were errors in the way the coverage was done, especially that now in Egypt we are going through a critical phase that requires a lot of auditing in terms of what gets broadcasted,” Mahmoud told Al Arabiya. “My colleagues have also resigned for the same reason.”

Mahmoud told Gulf News he left because of Al Jazeera’s “biased coverage”, but said that some local Egyptian stations were worse.

“I am not satisfied with the performance of local news channels in comparison to Al Jazeera due to their incompliance to neutrality,” he said. “Although I have left, I still carry a lot of respect for Al Jazeera and believe that they will remain one of the most respectful news channels.”

Al Jazeera today confirmed some staff had left its Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr operation, including some it said had “partisan political opinions”.

“Following the recent squeeze on media in Egypt, some Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr staff have decided to leave. We understand the reasons for some employees feeling they need to move on, including those with partisan political opinions,” the broadcaster said in a statement on its press website.

Some commentators have criticized Al Jazeera as favoring the Muslim Brotherhood in its coverage of events in Egypt.

Author and journalist Abdel Latif el-Menawy, who was head of the Egypt News Center under ex-president Hosni Mubarak, said that Al Jazeera was a “propaganda channel” for the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Al Jazeera turned itself into a channel for the Muslim Brotherhood group,” el-Menawy told Al Arabiya. “They are far away from being professional. When the Muslim Brotherhood collapsed, they continued to play the role.”

He said Al Jazeera gave undue prominence to certain events after Mursi was overthrown, including hours of airtime for “the Muslim Brotherhood to attack and make comments.”

El-Menawy said he “saluted” those journalists who left the channel.

“It’s a good thing to do, because they couldn’t accept what is going on,” he said. “People thought it was the voice of the revolution. And I think people were shocked to discover it was not.”

Al Jazeera fiercely denies allegations of bias in its coverage, saying that their journalists in Cairo had suffered from “intimidation” after Mursi was ousted.

Hours after the overthrow of Mursi by the Egyptian army, security forces raided the Cairo offices of Al Jazeera’s Egyptian TV channel. The broadcaster says “dozens” of its journalists have been detained by authorities.

An Al Jazeera spokesman said in the statement issued today said the channel had been “particularly targeted in an apparent crackdown on information.”

“Throughout our history we’ve had to cope with crackdowns. This unfortunately is nothing new. We will carry on doing our job regardless – upholding the highest standards of journalism, covering all angles of events in Egypt with balance and integrity.”

NARATHIWAT, Thailand: Marines fending off a major militant assault on their base in Thailand’s violent south killed 16insurgents in an overnight shootout, authorities said Wednesday. It was the deadliest toll the Muslim guerrillas suffered since more than 100 died in a single day nearly a decade ago.

About 50 militants wearing military-style uniforms attacked the marine corps base in Bacho district in Narathiwat province just after midnight Wednesday, said Capt. Somkiat Ponprayun, theprovincial marine corps special task force chief.

The shootout ended with 16 militants killed and the rest fleeing, Somkiat said. The death toll was reduced from the initial figure of 19 given out earlier Wednesday by regional army spokesman Col. Pramote Promin.

Somkiat said soldiers who fended off the attack suffered no casualties. He said the marines had been tipped off by the locals and warned of the assault.

Fighting in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces has occurred on a near daily basis since the insurgency flared anew in 2004, and more than 5,000 people have been killed. Security forces, as well as teachers, have been targeted by insurgents because they are seen as representatives of the government.

Muslims in the deep south, a Muslim-majority region in the Buddhist-dominated country that was once independent, have long complained of discrimination by the central government in Bangkok, and the insurgents are thought to be fighting for autonomy. But the insurgency itself remains murky, with militants making no public pronouncements on their goals.

The losses Wednesday were the most since guerrillas launched simultaneous attacks on police stations and checkpoints in the three provinces in April 2004, triggering clashes in which more than 100 militants were killed, 32 of them at the Kreu-Sae mosque in Pattani where they were holed up.

Cmdr. Thammanoon Wanna, who oversees the marine corps base, said the troops had braced for Wednesday’s assault after authorities discovered a sketch that mapped out the insurgents’ plans on a militant who was shot dead in recent days.

Regional army commander Lt. Gen. Udomchai Thammasaroraj said in an interview on ThaiPBS channel that the army has declared a curfew for the area within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the base for Wednesday night into Thursday.

“The insurgents were uplifted because of a surge in their successful attacks in recent weeks, so this is a significant loss on their side,” said Sunai Phasuk, a Bangkok-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. “From now, authorities will certainly have to be very concerned about their retaliation.”

On Sunday, suspected militants killed five soldiers and wounded five others in two attacks that included a car bomb blast in Yala province that was detonated as a truck carrying six soldiers passed. The militants then opened fire on the soldiers, killing five of them, and took away the dead soldiers’ rifles.

Officials from security agencies are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss safety measures for the southernmost provinces.

The verdict came despite repeated calls by rights groups to free Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, who has been jailed since 2011. It also underscored the harsh nature of Thailand’s lese majeste laws, which have been criticized as a violation of free speech.

The articles in question were published under pseudonyms in Somyot’s now-defunct Voice of Taksin magazine, which he launched in 2009 to compile political news and anti-establishment articles from writers and contributors.
Judges found both articles in question contained content that defamed the royal family and argued that Somyot, as a veteran editor, knew that and chose to print the stories anyway. The court handed down two five-year jail terms — one for each story.

Somyot said he would appeal the verdict but would not seek a royal pardon.
Although Somyot’s articles were published in 2010, he was only arrested the following year after launching a petition drive to revoke Article 112 of the nation’s criminal code, which mandates three to 15 years in jail for “whoever defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the regent.”

“The courts seem to have adopted the role of chief protector of the monarchy at the expense of free expression rights,” Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “The court’s ruling appears to be more about Somyot’s strong support for amending the lese majeste law than about any harm incurred by the monarchy.”