Addressing the concerns of media
The Peninsula
Through the media, Qatar’s political, economic, and social progress is preserved. A comprehensive strategy is necessary to encompass Qatar’s media body, which was dismantled 12 years ago as a result of the dissolution of the Ministry of Information.
The establishment of the Doha Center for Media Freedom reignited concerns regarding the status of the media in Qatar, as well as the obstacles faced day after day. It is clear that the seriousness of the challenges facing local media, the need for mobility, and the importance of radical change have yet to be grasped.
This is evidenced by inefficient public participation of the parties most concerned with and affected by the issues at hand; freedom of expression and publication. It should be noted that the forums, conferences and lectures addressing the press or media in Qatar in general have become similar to memorial ceremonies reminiscing the glories of the past.
There is much concern over the Penal Code restricting freedom of expression, the absence of a private association of journalists and media professionals gathered under one umbrella, Qatari journalists of both genders that flee from local media participation, legitimacy of references, and absence of ethical legislation governing the profession, and so forth.
What distinguishes the initiative called for by the Doha Center for Media Freedom is a great effort towards its formulation stemming mostly from active participants in the media and press laws in Qatar.
The analysis monitors the most important ailments suffered by the media after the dissolution of the Ministry of Information in 1998, and writes a prescription for antidotes, the most significant of which demands the cancellation of Press and Publications Law No. (8) for the year of 1979, which was passed in over 30 years, and has since become incompatible with the spirit of the modern constitution. It does not keep pace with the increasing diversity of media, from satellite channels to Internet sites, and the proliferation of newspapers and publications.
The law contains retroactive penalising terms of restricting freedom of expression, such as imprisonment, arrest, and fines. The analysis highlights a need to expedite the enactment of a modern law governing Press and Publication, promoting the principle of freedom, and raising the bar of expression not only in Qatar but in the Arab region as a whole.
The modernised law should advocate the implementation of decisions that would bring about progress in the country, where Qatar is among the first of Arab states to abolish its Ministry of Information, leading to the distribution of competencies, the creation of Al Jazeera and its counterparts, the Doha Center for Media Freedom, the Arab Foundation for Democracy, and the great edifice of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.
However, despite all of these changes, there was not a similar openness, mobility, or real change reflected on the status of domestic press and media. Institutions within this realm have been left out of these changes, becoming outdated.
In addition, there are calls for drafting an honourary Charter of the Press, unified across the Arab world, as a show of solidarity with fellow journalists subjected to any kind of violations. In today’s world freedom of expression is the very criteria used when judging and classifying countries according to the status of rights granted to those on its soil.
Qatar’s media today lack integration and a comprehensive strategy to set a unified vision, objectives and roles to be played at a local, regional, or international level.
Despite the fact that our society is relatively small, and we live in a peninsula on the Gulf Coast, our media seem to live on even smaller islands isolated from each other, separated by distances of time and space. This is what has been observed in seminars, conferences, and forums that bring together the press, television, radio, Al Jazeera, and the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, and private universities.
We have all the capabilities and capacity to become a model of excellence for the region. Interest in the development of the press and media in Qatar must be at the top of our national priorities, initiated through legislation, and the development of a comprehensive strategy to unite the body of media that has become disjointed after the dissolution of the Ministry of Information. We must deal with arrears and freedoms of expression at a regional and international level, and become a reference point for future applications.
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