“The editors-in-chief practice self-censorship as their main aim is to stick to their chair,” wrote Mariam Al Saad, one of the “affected” columnists.Editors-in-chief consider themselves to be more patriotic than the king and holier than thou, she said.
People have for long wondered why freedom still eludes the Qatari media if the country’s top leadership had lifted media censorship by disbanding the ministry of information way back in 1995.
In countries which have media freedom and extensive laws to protect the media, defamation suits are filed against reporters and their newspapers directly by those aggrieved.
In Qatar, however, the situation is different in the absence of a media law. Here, anybody can simply file a complaint with the police against a reporter and his newspaper.
The police then call the reporter and question him in a harassing way, and if they (the police) feel there is merit in the complaint, the journalist is referred to the Public Prosecution for further questioning.
Since it is the prosecution’s prerogative to refer a matter to court, many complaints against journalists do not reach the court at all and end up in journalists being harassed and humiliated rather than being put on a fair trial.
Many a time prosecution officials call a journalist concerned at 5am, when he is in the middle of sleep.
The entire process is so harrowing and humiliating for a journalist that he chickens out when it comes to writing critically on issues"
I did answer in an earlier thread, but i don't mind reposting the articles in the peninsula Qatar highlighting this extensively
A crippled fourth state, a bold perspective of the local journalists struggle with expressing their opinion
“The editors-in-chief practice self-censorship as their main aim is to stick to their chair,” wrote Mariam Al Saad, one of the “affected” columnists.Editors-in-chief consider themselves to be more patriotic than the king and holier than thou, she said.
People have for long wondered why freedom still eludes the Qatari media if the country’s top leadership had lifted media censorship by disbanding the ministry of information way back in 1995.
In countries which have media freedom and extensive laws to protect the media, defamation suits are filed against reporters and their newspapers directly by those aggrieved.
In Qatar, however, the situation is different in the absence of a media law. Here, anybody can simply file a complaint with the police against a reporter and his newspaper.
The police then call the reporter and question him in a harassing way, and if they (the police) feel there is merit in the complaint, the journalist is referred to the Public Prosecution for further questioning.
Since it is the prosecution’s prerogative to refer a matter to court, many complaints against journalists do not reach the court at all and end up in journalists being harassed and humiliated rather than being put on a fair trial.
Many a time prosecution officials call a journalist concerned at 5am, when he is in the middle of sleep.
The entire process is so harrowing and humiliating for a journalist that he chickens out when it comes to writing critically on issues"