Jazeera exec denounced by secret police
I went to an yesterday organized by ictQatar, the telecoms regulator which sets the rules about what is censored on the internet.
There were lots of the usual crowd from QatarLiving there. You see, the day was meant to bring together bloggers and journalists to listen to speakers discuss how the media was changing. Here is a write-up if you missed it. One QL regular stepped up to the job and asked a question about censorship, which I thought would be the highlight of my day. Then the Al Jazeera bloke gave his speech.
He was talking about citizen journalism, and how his company was encouraging user-generated content. Interesting stuff. He used a Jon Stewart clip to illustrate the quality problems that might occur.
After the clip, something strange happened. Some guy in the back of the place, dressed in a thobe starts shouting. He was upset. And the Arab-speakers around me were upset. I nudged the guy next to me and asked what was happening. "He is saying this is filth, and the speaker is a pornographer. It's bad news. We might have to leave." I gave my neighbour my best "WTF?!" face, and he explained. "He is from the Ministry of Interior. If he carries on, we will have to leave."
Eventually, the spook calms down a little, and his slow rocking subsides. "He says this is against our culture, but I don't think there's going to be a walk-out."
The comedy value wasn't lost on the Ali Al-Shawaf of BBC Arabic. He could be seen losing the battle to control his mirth as Al Jazeera was denounced as filth-mongers. Welcome to the future of the media in Qatar.
Jazeera is Pathetic...I feel the Dubai news on Dubai One is much better....
And who are the "usual crowd from QatarLiving"?
For user generated content I guess QL ranks among the best....unless its only thinking "Video clips"
Obviously they were not familiar with the specific ironic style of Jon Stewart and his satirical news program, sometimes hard to digest, true! Not to forget he is Jewish...
I totally agree with lets say "i-Report" new wave- amateur journalists, even if there can be also moronic messages; it's in the news provider's hands to select them, to broadcast or censor them according to the internal rules/network's policies/country's interests..whatever. And it's in our hands to switch the channels...where available!;-)
Sorry, here is the correct link to the Jon Stewart "filth".
couldn't get it:-( just curious, why ppl got angry...seems evrthg is pornography for them here...
let's just face the fact that these arabs (qataris) will never be as open minded as the west...they are going backwards here....
they are all snorkin' cavemen.....
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"The grass is always greener...over the Septic Tank"
They had their "QL Bloggers Do It in a Forum" T-Shirts on..
The strange thing is, everyone holds their screen-names here as closely guarded secrets, but as soon as you meet someone in the flesh they immediately tell you. "I'm John, but I call myself BlanketyBlank on QatarLiving." Have you not found the same?
how did you know that there were QLers too