Doha Centre for Media Freedom

DOHA: Doha Centre for Media Freedom has announced yesterday that it has terminated the services of Robert Ménard, director-general of the Centre beginning from June.

The decision was taken following Ménard’s announcement that he had quit his post and left Doha. The statement added that Doha Centre for Media Freedom will continue carrying out its mission in institutional manner and as per its by-laws. QNA/THE PENINSULA

http://www.thepenins...

Robert Ménard and his team have left the Doha Centre for Media Freedom. "The Centre has been suffocated. We no longer have either the freedom or the resources to do our work", he explained.

Ménard concluded: "I do not doubt the sincerity of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah and her determination to advance the cause of freedom, especially media freedom. But she is not alone. And those who prefer to retain the status quo are many, powerful and obstinate.

"No-one but her would have dared imagine a Centre like the one we have built here. Maybe Sheikha Mozah is too far ahead of her fellow citizens, too ’modern’ for political figures attached to the status quo, too aware of the challenges in this world for dignitaries concerned only with their own interests."

For the full article:

Is death imminent for the Doha Center for Media Freedom's motto and mission? From Al-Sharq via the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingto...):

The man whose name has been tied for years to press freedom and the defense of journalists worldwide from his Paris perch, then transplanted to Doha to start a similar gig, has become the bête noire of a leading Qatari paper that accused him of promoting "immorality" and insulting Qataris.

"It's been a year since the center opened, and six months since it became operational, at phenomenal cost, and it was hoped it would provide added value to the local landscape, but it hasn't, and its limelight-seeking director has limited himself to fiery statements," blasted the editor in chief of the daily Al Sharq on Sunday.

The editor was referring to Robert Menard, who set up the Doha Centre for Media Freedom , with blessings from Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and under the patronage of the country's first lady, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned. Editor Jaber Al Harmi also slammed Menard for not being a team player, a trait he alleged the Frenchman carried over from the time he founded and headed Reporters Sans Frontiers, or Reporters Without Borders.

"Menard not only got rid of Qataris from the organization, but repeatedly insulted the state of Qatar; most recently by lambasting our brothers in Dubai who tried to limit the toxic effects of obscene websites, notably through YouTube in the United Arab Emirates," Al Harmi said. He added that Menard's excoriation of the Dubai police chief -- charged with maintaining the Emirates' moral standards - meant the former wanted the latter to allow websites that insulted Islam and deities and promoted blasphemy in the name of press freedom...

read the rest of the article on the Huffington Post:

Do you think this is simply a case of a bad match between the director of the DCMF and TPTB in Qatar?

Or if the DCMF is an oxymoron to begin with and an idea that could never work here?

Reporters Without Borders, which helped set up and is a supporter of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, are getting more and more annoyed with the Qatar authorities treatment of the DCMF;

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.

This latest incident appears to be just the tip of the iceberg;

“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.”

Is it feasible that the DCMF would pull out of Qatar altogether if the authorities continue to renege on their promises to the centre?

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.”

Media centre urges rejection of resolution

Source ::: THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF) has urged the UN Human Rights Council to reject a draft resolution by Islamic countries condemning criticism of religion, saying it was “an unacceptable violation” of international agreements about freedom of expression.

Such freedom was only possible if religion could be “discussed and criticised freely” in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Centre said.

Here's an article discussing Qatar's freedom of press, the Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, from the UAE's The Nation newspaper.

We've discussed to death on QL the problems with Qatar's newspapers, journalism and media freedom, but do we think that Mr. Roth and the Doha Centre for Media Freedom will be able to change anything? It's undoubtedly good that they're turning their attention to the issues in their host country, but will it make a difference?


Qatar’s high and low roads to freedom of the

by Keach Hagey

The Qatar campus of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism rises formidably out of the desert like a temple to something grand, mysterious and exotic. And in a way, that is what it is.

Despite the reputation for outspoken journalism that Qatar has built up over the years by hosting the feisty Al Jazeera network, the local press is still a long way – legally and culturally – from being able to practise the kind of sceptical, American-style journalism that Medill is now teaching. The country is still operating under a 1979 media law that allows journalists to be jailed, helping to create a situation that the Doha Centre for Media Freedom recently said “encourages self-censorship and makes it difficult to criticise the government”.

But the opening of the journalism school last year and the media advocacy centre in 2007 – both with government backing – indicates that there is political will at the highest levels for things to change for Doha’s local press.

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.

This is the complete text of DCMF's report on press freedom in Qatar. It is not good reading for those who claim there is freedom of the press in this country.

In 1996, Qatar launched the first Arabic-language
rolling-news satellite TV station, Al Jazeera, which
has revolutionised the regional media scene and stirred up
controversy, though it has not really changed the media
freedom situation in Qatar itself.