Well, is there an actual local Qatari TV station? there's al jazeera but that's like expecting CNN to report on the elementary school bakesale in the states. There's also a total lack of newsradio here: the 'news' read on QBS is literally just a round up of the headlines from google news that day.
Qatar hasn't really invested in encouraging a news media. In my opinion, when accused of not having a free press, they fall back on being the home of Al Jazeera. But for local, on the ground, Doha and Qatari news? with the tight licensing and visa regulations, it's pretty easy to pick and choose who and what gets to work here. So we end up with a lot of lifestyle mags (which I'm not knocking as that's my bread and butter) that, because of either brand guidelines or licensing laws, can't do the kind of up to date news reporting you're mentioning. And the newspapers? Well let's just say they seem to like to pick certain nationalities and ages, who easily bow to continually editorial pressure to basically publish raw press releases about either a)irrelevant and boring news (do i really care that the GM of such and such shook hands with the CEO of so and so?) or b)happy clappy everything-is-sunny-all-the-time-always 'news'.
Not to mention, we're dealing with a culture in the region in general that doesn't 'get' the journalists should be unbiased. Or factual. they give us presents at press cons for goodness sake! And just expect, if they fling some advertising money in our direction, that we'll print what they say verbatum, AND give them approval before we do so. it's slowly changing, but not fast enough. We're gettign there tho!
Well, is there an actual local Qatari TV station? there's al jazeera but that's like expecting CNN to report on the elementary school bakesale in the states. There's also a total lack of newsradio here: the 'news' read on QBS is literally just a round up of the headlines from google news that day.
Qatar hasn't really invested in encouraging a news media. In my opinion, when accused of not having a free press, they fall back on being the home of Al Jazeera. But for local, on the ground, Doha and Qatari news? with the tight licensing and visa regulations, it's pretty easy to pick and choose who and what gets to work here. So we end up with a lot of lifestyle mags (which I'm not knocking as that's my bread and butter) that, because of either brand guidelines or licensing laws, can't do the kind of up to date news reporting you're mentioning. And the newspapers? Well let's just say they seem to like to pick certain nationalities and ages, who easily bow to continually editorial pressure to basically publish raw press releases about either a)irrelevant and boring news (do i really care that the GM of such and such shook hands with the CEO of so and so?) or b)happy clappy everything-is-sunny-all-the-time-always 'news'.
Not to mention, we're dealing with a culture in the region in general that doesn't 'get' the journalists should be unbiased. Or factual. they give us presents at press cons for goodness sake! And just expect, if they fling some advertising money in our direction, that we'll print what they say verbatum, AND give them approval before we do so. it's slowly changing, but not fast enough. We're gettign there tho!