> Indians are their biggest customers and it is only common sense
> that they cater to them more.
Common sense is wrong. The local English-language newspapers are not businesses like the press in other parts of the world. The papers exist because their owners want to have the influence that is associated with a daily paper that is read by the top-tier of society. If the owners just wanted to sell lots of papers, there would be a Hindi paper in Doha.
> Like it or not, censoring is firmly a part of the region.
I believe the local press is behind the curve. There's a new constitution that guarantees press freedom within the law, and the editors of the local papers should at least try to see how far they can take those new freedoms.
Why aren't there journalists standing in the malls, asking people about important issues? Journalists complain that there is no local news - well they're just not looking for it. How about asking young Arabs what they think about moral issues, and compare their responses with those of the older generation. How about, for once, asking a difficult question at a press conference? Or publish a league table of building sites with the most construction deaths?
The current editors just don't have the balls to do it. They've given up journalism and have become vanity publishers.
> biggest supplier of ads are the expat community, once again,
> predominantly Indians.
Hmm. Your are right, Indians probably supply the vast majority of adverts, but the cost of a classified in the Gulf Times doesn't cover the cost of the paper its printed on. The two-riyal cover price of the papers is also a joke. The important people to impress are those supplying full-page ads, supplements, and wrap-arounds. These are generally companies that are in the same holding group as the newspaper, and thus it's the Qatari owners that need to be impressed, not expats.
> Indians are their biggest customers and it is only common sense
> that they cater to them more.
Common sense is wrong. The local English-language newspapers are not businesses like the press in other parts of the world. The papers exist because their owners want to have the influence that is associated with a daily paper that is read by the top-tier of society. If the owners just wanted to sell lots of papers, there would be a Hindi paper in Doha.
> Like it or not, censoring is firmly a part of the region.
I believe the local press is behind the curve. There's a new constitution that guarantees press freedom within the law, and the editors of the local papers should at least try to see how far they can take those new freedoms.
Why aren't there journalists standing in the malls, asking people about important issues? Journalists complain that there is no local news - well they're just not looking for it. How about asking young Arabs what they think about moral issues, and compare their responses with those of the older generation. How about, for once, asking a difficult question at a press conference? Or publish a league table of building sites with the most construction deaths?
The current editors just don't have the balls to do it. They've given up journalism and have become vanity publishers.
> biggest supplier of ads are the expat community, once again,
> predominantly Indians.
Hmm. Your are right, Indians probably supply the vast majority of adverts, but the cost of a classified in the Gulf Times doesn't cover the cost of the paper its printed on. The two-riyal cover price of the papers is also a joke. The important people to impress are those supplying full-page ads, supplements, and wrap-arounds. These are generally companies that are in the same holding group as the newspaper, and thus it's the Qatari owners that need to be impressed, not expats.
--nigel