News Broadcaster Won't Be Shut Down in Attempt to End Blockade

Jason Ditz 

Posted onJune 13, 2017CategoriesNewsTagscensorship, Qatar, Saudi Arabia

Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani today vowed that al-Jazeera was officially “off the table” with respect to any negotiations with the rest of the GCC member nations aimed at ending a diplomatic split which has led to the imposition of a blockade by Saudi Arabia and several other key trading partners.

Qatari officials had already rejected the Saudi demands, and Thani today reiterated that al-Jazeera was considered part of Qatar’s “internal affairs,” and the popular regional broadcaster would not be sacrificed as part of any negotiations to end the blockade.Saudi Arabia in particular has long criticized al-Jazeera for taking positions contrary to Saudi official policy, and for giving a voice to opposition parties in nations that heavily suppress opposition political speech, and among their demands in last week’s ultimatum, Saudi Arabia demanded that Qatar shut down al-Jazeera forever.

Al-Jazeera’s willingness to air both sides of controversial issues is all but unheard of in Middle East media, and the anti-Qatar crowd have used this fact as part of their narrative that the Qatari government is fomenting “extremism” across the region, with most of the sorest points in al-Jazeera’s broadcast history boiling down to their coverage of the Arab Spring and support for pro-democracy protesters in places like Egypt.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/06/13/qatar-fm-al-jazeera-off-the-table-in-any-negotiations/