A fateful knock on the door, one hot morning in May in Eastern Afghanistan.
“My mother and sister were upstairs, so I opened the door. A lady asked me for a glass of water. I turned around and she wrapped a cloth around my head and stabbed me in the stomach. The next day they returned, to kill me. I changed houses every day; the doctors came to those different houses.”
These are the chilling words of a young Afghan journalist who, at just 20 years of age, has been through more danger and fear than many of her counterparts in the West will in an entire lifetime. Her smile, though, is full of courage, hope and defiance as she talks of being threatened with a gun pointed to her head, stabbed close to death with a knife, and finally forced to flee her home country for a safe haven here in Qatar.
“Journalists in Afghanistan are not free, if they want to work they shouldn’t do political programmes or news,” says Niloufer Habibi, wearing a sprightly yellow shirt and a modest brown headscarf as she tells me of her ordeal. “There is a young generation who wish to be free and to serve their countries, but unfortunately some societies don’t allow them to do their work. I am glad that there is a centre like this one – there should be one in every country.” 
She is referring to the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, and it is the opening day of the media rights advocacy centre situated right at the heart of the Middle East, but equipped to reach out right across the world.
Sylvie Coudray, senior Unesco official for freedom of expression, sits in an Arabic style sofa on a hot morning in October, smoking nervously and glancing around in all directions. Just in from Paris, she looks like that eccentric but likeable female boss out of James Bond. Her Unesco numbers are quite deadly, too. 
“Since the start of the war in Iraq, more than 300 journalists have died there. That is huge,” she says, emphasising the last word. “This is one of the most complicated regions in the world for media freedom. To open such a centre here is courageous.” Then she looks at me and asks: “Do you think it will work?”
It is undoubtedly the unspoken question on everyone’s mind that morning. Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin embodies official confidence at the opening press conference as he says: “Liberty and freedom matter to all of us, and in any part of the world freedom is a basic concept of liberty. We should expose those who do not uphold honesty.”
Next to him sits a compatriot of whom Coudray says: “He is quite outspoken…” She says this with a little worried frown on her face. 
Robert Menard is outspoken indeed. This is the man who early this year disrupted the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Athens, was expelled from China with a stamp asking him never to return, and called IOC President Rogge a “liar”. Now, after 23 long years at the helm of Reporters Without Borders, he has arrived in the Middle East.
Judging by the animated way in which he is talking about the freedom of expression and the importance of an independent and critical media, you might think he were sitting on an old bench of some romantic Rue in Paris.
“This opening is a revolution here in a region where until now everyone has helped their friends, but no one has helped people who love freedom of the press,” Menard, the Director General of the Doha Media Freedom Centre, tells me, before adding, “The other revolutionary aspect is that we are not only interested in the Arab world but the whole world, originating from an Arabic country. This is very important because we have already helped 100 journalists all over the world. This is a global centre and we plan to open offices around the world next year.”
Besides providing shelter for endangered journalists, the centre is also assisting journalists in hurricane-ravaged Haiti and Cuba and is helping to set up a press agency for suppressed Somali scribes. But for all the external ambitions it harbours, the most crucial measure of success is whether it can transform a region where criticism is often a deadly extravagance rather than a vital means of progression.
Indeed 2008 has been a significant year for media developments in Qatar. This year has also seen the inauguration of Northwestern University, one of the leading American journalism and communications programmes in Qatar – a very clear sign that media freedom is at the top of the country’s agenda. Now American professors are helping shape this media revolution, and are giving their students the tools they need to enter into a close-knit society and report the hitherto un-reported. 
“I would hope and imagine that the greatest impact of the centre will be internally - one needs to start at home,” says Richard Roth, Senior Associate Dean for Journalism, sitting at his desk at Northwestern University in Qatar. “I know from our Qatari students that they want to talk about censorship and are very aware of it. One Qatari girl told me she is in this programme because she wants things reported which she doesn’t see in the news here. These young people have a real appetite for change.”
It is this fresh impetus of youngsters with ideals and hopes that gives the Doha Centre for Media Freedom a realistic chance of working. The students include a self-titled “Arabian Oprah” from Palestine, a Lebanese girl who donned purple contact lenses on the opening day of the university to show her sense of hope at this novel opportunity, and an Egyptian named Hamad who clearly does not mind being in the minority with 76% female students in the first year.
As Qatari student Mariam explains: “I think most of the girls applied for communications because it is really needed in today’s world in Qatar.” Here are two strong desires combining: the yearning for freedom of expression and for female independence in a hitherto highly patriarchal society.
Meeting these youngsters, hope – and self-confidence - is pervasive. And, as Mimi White, head of the communications programme at NWU-Q, points out: “Our students are very passionate about questions of freedom of expression. I think that is why this new centre provides such a great starting point, even if everything in the region is not as you would hope for yet.”
This new generation is undoubtedly benefiting from a wider modernisation process that has been wholeheartedly supported by the Emir HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his wife HH Sheikha Mozah Nasser al-Misnad.
Menard confirms as much back in his office in Doha: “We have the necessary budget and the moral backing of the authorities in Qatar. Each time I spoke to Her Highness Sheikha Mozah, she said this is a place to defend press freedom. She never asked me: do this, don’t do this. We work in complete freedom here. This is the deal with her.”
But despite his outspoken words, the French media maverick is keenly aware of the difficulty of the challenges that lie ahead: “In this region there is also the threat of religious fundamentalism to our work, and we have to find a way to make conciliation between freedom of the press and regional characteristics. Qatar is not Sweden. The weight of history is not the same, so we have to find a way to make this work.”
He does not see any comparable organisation in the world: “We are in a unique position here, for the same reason that Qatar solved the recent problems in Lebanon and has tried to play a similar role in Sudan. In the same way this centre can play an essential role in bringing journalists together. I am sure things in the Middle East will change. Here we can bring Jewish and Muslim journalists together, and not many countries can manage to bring Palestinians and Israelis together. For that reason I am an optimist.”
This will no doubt be a regional struggle for media freedom with a great many difficulties along the way – as difficult at times as the journey which took Niloufer from embattled Afghanistan to the tranquil shores of Doha. “I hope others see my story and the difficulties I have been through, and how I keep doing my duty for my country,” she says, before using her newfound freedom to express her opinion quite openly:
“If they see the fact that the Afghan authorities failed to protect me and that Qatar offered me asylum, I am sure they will stay at home and not do their work. But I know there are other women who believe in what they are doing and continue even if they are in danger. I will continue with my work.”
It is this sense of defiance which is giving hope to a generation that is, quite literally, dying to be heard.