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Revision as of 19:32, 22 March 2004
The Middle East Media Research Institute is a organization headquartered in Washington, DC which was established in 1978 to 'inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East'. Memri translates Arabic and Persian media. It describes itself as an 'independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501 (c)3 organization'.
Most of the translations produced by MEMRI portray Arabs and Muslims in a bad light, or in some way further the interests of Israel, leading to critics branding it as a pro-Israel propaganda organization. This criticism is reinforced by the fact that MEMRI includes lavish plaudits for itself on its website, almost exclusively from those of a neoconservative persuasion, and by the fact that of six major staff members listed on MEMRI's original website, three, including Meyrav Wurmser and Colonel Yigal Carmon had worked for Israeli intelligence in the past.
Nonetheless, MEMRI is one of the few sources of English language translations of material published in Arabic and Persian. It provides a view into the intra-Arab and intra-Muslim dialog that is otherwise unavailable to those individuals that are not literate in Arabic or Persian.
MEMRI is considered reliable by The New York Times and used by that newspaper as one of its sources of translations.