Although I've explained this over a dozen of times in the past 5 years, allow me to highlight the following ;
Although Qatar is no Saudi or china , I think you can notice the state of local media with very little journalism in display and plain governmental official press releases. This have been the case forever and only in the past decade things started changing with the abolishment of the ministry of information. Although the new media law is yet be issued, there have been significant acceptance from the power that be of people expressing themselves in public. Qataris started to speak out in live tv & radio shows, Qatar foundation introduced Qatar debate program for high school & college students. Last year sheika Mozah said in a WSJ interview " we don't want passive citizens". While the authority welcomes this, change must come from within. Culturally, people here takes criticism as insults. When last month al Watan newspaper editor in chief called the minister of education to step down after a series of harsh criticism for over a week, most people were very offended. Despite the fact that many Qataris resent the current education reforms
Mindsets can't be changed over night, locals here still have ethnic , tribal & sectarian barriers within each other . It would certainly take time to accept criticism from Foreigners ( whether constructive or negative)
Although I've explained this over a dozen of times in the past 5 years, allow me to highlight the following ;
Although Qatar is no Saudi or china , I think you can notice the state of local media with very little journalism in display and plain governmental official press releases. This have been the case forever and only in the past decade things started changing with the abolishment of the ministry of information. Although the new media law is yet be issued, there have been significant acceptance from the power that be of people expressing themselves in public. Qataris started to speak out in live tv & radio shows, Qatar foundation introduced Qatar debate program for high school & college students. Last year sheika Mozah said in a WSJ interview " we don't want passive citizens". While the authority welcomes this, change must come from within. Culturally, people here takes criticism as insults. When last month al Watan newspaper editor in chief called the minister of education to step down after a series of harsh criticism for over a week, most people were very offended. Despite the fact that many Qataris resent the current education reforms
Mindsets can't be changed over night, locals here still have ethnic , tribal & sectarian barriers within each other . It would certainly take time to accept criticism from Foreigners ( whether constructive or negative)