More than 600 people gathered Thursday night in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union to hear about the experience and viewpoints of a reporter and producer of Al Jazeera, an Arab news network.

On his way to becoming a journalist, Omar al-Issawi, co-creator of Al Jazeera, said he remembers an Afghan man who he saw on the streets begging for money. He said he refused him money because he had thought the man was able to help himself.

Al-Issawi said that was not the case, which taught him to be more compassionate.

“[Afghans] don’t beg; they are very proud. It taught me to be more human and I am still looking for him today,” al-Issawi said.

He also said when American POWs were killed and shown on the Al Jazeera network, people in the United States were upset, but he was just doing his job.

“Broadcasters don’t violate the Geneva Convention — countries do,” he said.

Before Al Jazeera was created in 1996, news organizations were showing footage just as inhumane as the POW footage, such as Nazi tapes showing bulldozing of dead people into mass graves.

Al-Issawi justified Al Jazeera’s tactics by saying the news is here to give facts based on reality, not opinions.

“We are not in the emotions business. We believe in dealing with reality and this is reality,” al-Issawi said.

Al-Issawi ended with a description of the Arab world.

“There are three major deficits in the Arab world: freedom, knowledge and women empowerment,” he said.

He said diminishing borders are causing everyone to be affected by global events.

After listening to the co-creator of Al Jazeera, ISU students were left with mixed feelings about the media in the Arab countries.

“Like he said, talking about the bad stuff has [made] people concentrate on TV,” said Roya Ijadi-Maghsoodi, junior in biology.

After traveling to the Middle East last summer, the American media is one-sided because it only shows negative things that are going on there, Ijadi-Maghsoodi said.

Chris Albert, sophomore in pre-professional health, said he could see Al Jazeera’s outside point of view and it seems to be an objective news network. There was still some connection between Al Jazeera and al-Qaida though, he said.

“I guess I didn’t know how [Al Jazeera] presented [news],” Albert said, “but everyone perceives it in relation with al-Qaida.”