There's more than one way to skin a cat. Jail and defamation cases are not the only punishments known to man. To be fair, the Qataris are nice to journalists (they would, on the whole, rather bribe them than jail them) but the few who don't want to get sucked into the "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" culture are likely to find their articles sitting on the editor's spike and themselves, in due course, looking for other employment.
Controlling the ownership and management of the Press by making it illegal to publish a newspaper without a government licence and insisting that editors-in-chief have government approval ensures very effectively that theoretical "Press freedom" will never be exercised in a very challenging way.
The Attorney General's statement is true in as far as a legal framework for Press freedom exists. But as we all know, there is a difference between the public face and the practical realities that go a long way to contradict it.
There's more than one way to skin a cat. Jail and defamation cases are not the only punishments known to man. To be fair, the Qataris are nice to journalists (they would, on the whole, rather bribe them than jail them) but the few who don't want to get sucked into the "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" culture are likely to find their articles sitting on the editor's spike and themselves, in due course, looking for other employment.
Controlling the ownership and management of the Press by making it illegal to publish a newspaper without a government licence and insisting that editors-in-chief have government approval ensures very effectively that theoretical "Press freedom" will never be exercised in a very challenging way.
The Attorney General's statement is true in as far as a legal framework for Press freedom exists. But as we all know, there is a difference between the public face and the practical realities that go a long way to contradict it.