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Advisory Council calls for new press law

By Arabian73 on Wed, 01/07/2009 - 1:48am

Qatar Advisory Council calls for new press law

The Advisory Council has called for issuing a new press law that can keep pace with the current and future developments in Qatar.

The Council, which was debating a petition made by a 24-member of the body about the “Responsible media freedom” has also sought the questioning of journalists trying to distort the image of Qatar and taking legal measures against them.
The session, which was held on Monday and chaired by the Advisory Council Speaker HE Mohamed bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, has endorsed the recommendations submitted by the Cultural and Media Committee at the Council on the topic of discussion and referred them to the Cabinet.


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William Boot's picture

DCMF journalist forbidden to leave Qatar

By William Boot on Wed, 25/03/2009 - 5:21pm

Reporters Without Borders is deeply concerned about a hardening in the attitude of the Qatari authorities towards the Doha Centre for Media Freedom. Hajar Smouni, head of research at the Centre and a former member of the Reporters Without Borders staff, was prevented from leaving Qatar today.

“The Doha Centre has for months been struggling to keep its independence and is under pressure from the Qatari authorities,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said. “This ban is a violation of the undertakings Qatar gave to the Doha Centre.”


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Arien's picture

Change Qatar press law or we leave..

By Arien on Tue, 10/02/2009 - 12:01pm

By Anwar Elshamy
THE chief of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF) yesterday called on Qatar to amend its press law, while threatening to leave if the law was not amended.
Addressing a press conference to release the first annual report by the DCMF on media freedom in the Middle East and North Africa, Robert Menard, the director general of the centre, said the Qatari press law, which was issued in 1979, had never been amended in spite of a revolution in the local media scene in the country. “Without changing the status of press freedom in Qatar, it would be impossible for the centre to criticise any other country for imposing restrictions on media freedom,” Menard said.

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qatari's picture

Doha Centre for Media Freedom calls for legal reforms

By qatari on Fri, 14/11/2008 - 11:40pm

There has been a lot of chatter surrounding the statement that the newly established Doha Centre for Media Freedom put out on the 11 November 2008.

Here is the actual statement that is up on their website:

The Doha Centre for Media Freedom calls on Qatar’s government to amend the country’s press law. “The National Human Rights Day (November 11) should be the occasion to make a few suggestions as to how the country’s much-lauded press freedom might be expanded,” it said.

Days that commemorate are useful if they are not filled with big speeches far removed from reality but instead lead to change, through as detailed and honest a picture of the situation as possible. Qatar’s National Human Rights Day on November 11 can be of use to everyone if we take the opportunity to state the facts. Among the rights the Day celebrates is freedom of expression, which is the key to other human rights.

Qatar has nothing to be ashamed of in this respect. It sponsored the Arab world’s first satellite TV network which gave a voice not just to those in power but to those who disagreed with them, as reflected by the station’s famous slogan of "The Opinion and the Other Opinion." This is a revolution in the region.

The presence in Qatar for the past few months of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom is another first. Until now, all international human rights organisations (and the Doha Centre is one) have been based in Western countries.

Qatar’s top leaders have also made many pledges to support freedom of expression. They took a principled stand when nearly all Arab League information ministers wanted to adopt a charter curbing the freedom of satellite TV stations to broadcast.

Qatar has many virtues in a region where countless regimes abuse press freedom and attack journalists. This does not mean, of course, that it has no press freedom problems. Nearly all journalists in Qatar would agree there is self-censorship and that cultural tradition favours consensus over inconvenient truths. So National Human Rights Day should be the occasion to make a few suggestions as to how the country’s much-lauded press freedom might be expanded. We will make just two.


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