New York is in the United States, right? United States is/was a democracy right? Democracy upholds freedom of press among other freedoms right? And - ummm, democrats do not discriminate on the basis of nationality and language - inter alia - right? You have to be Arabic-speaking to get marching orders from New York Stock Exchange....
Right! Below is an AFP article
"Arabians banned from NYSE"
NEW YORK - The New York Stock Exchange says it has banned reporters from the Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera from its trading floor, sparking charges of retaliation for the channel's coverage of the Iraq war.
NYSE spokesman Ray Pellecchia said the decision to rescind the accreditation of two journalists from Al-Jazeera's New York bureau had been taken to try and accommodate a surge in requests from television networks for access to the stock exchange.
"We've had to prioritise requests that we've gotten and focus our efforts on those who focus on providing responsible business coverage, and as a result we cannot accommodate Al-Jazeera at this time," Pellecchia said.
"If we can develop more capacity in the future and they are interested in coming back, they may be allowed back," he added.
Al-Jazeera - based in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar - has given extensive coverage to widespread Arab criticism of the American war effort and US military officials have
criticised the station for broadcasting Iraqi television images of American prisoners of war.
The satellite channel has made daily broadcasts from the New York Stock Exchange for several years.
On its regular morning financial broadcast, Al-Jazeera said the accreditations had been withdrawn "because of al-Jazeera's coverage of the war on Iraq."
Pellecchia confirmed that Al-Jazeera was the only network to have its existing accreditations rescinded, but refused to comment on the charge that the move was purely retaliatory in nature.
However, a stock exchange official who declined to be identified said the decision had been taken "with events in Iraq in mind."
-AFP
