By Anwar Elshamy
Proposed changes to the existing press law yesterday raised a heated debate among chief editors of local dailies, journalists and other public personalities.
Critics say the existing law is outdated and does not match the sweeping changes witnessed by Qatar over the past decade,
Amendments to the press law, which was issued in 1979, were proposed during a roundtable discussion hosted by the Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF).
Senior Qatari lawyer Yousuf Ahmed al-Zaman criticised the existing law regulating the press, saying that it failed to regulate the freedom of information flow and maintain journalists’ access to information.
“Our lawmakers have upgraded all economic legislations and should also change the press law. The new law should give a journalist the right to discuss all public issues, without being subjected to any penalties restricting his or her freedom,” said the former judge at the Appeals Court in an intervention during the discussion.
Dr Ilham Badr, a noted broadcaster at Qatar Radio and TV, slammed the lack of freedom in local media coverage of public issues, saying that the country’s leadership is more willing to advance Qatar’s record in media freedom than the State’s executive officials.
“It is the state executives who are putting obstacles in the way of media freedom, being unable to understand the leadership’s discourse on democracy,” Badr said, observing that even criticising the condition of an international road like Salwa Rroad was ‘taboo’.
Nasser al-Othman, a former chief editor of Arrayah Arabic daily and a trustee member at the DCMF, called for abolishing the imprisonment clause in the current press law and replacing it with monetary penalties.
“I believe that suggestions made at today’s meeting could be useful if taken seriously by lawmakers,” said al-Othman, who was named as the dean of Qatari journalists.
Abdullah bin Hamad al-Azaba, a columnist at Al Arab, criticised the absence of a government representative at the meeting, saying that such an absence had turned the discussion into a “dialogue of the deaf”.
“I was saddened that HE Sheikh Hamad bin Thamir (the Al Jazeera TV network chairman) was absent while HE Sheikh Jabor bin Yousuf (chief of the official Qatar News Agency) left before the end of our discussion,” he lamented.
DCMF deputy director general Mariam al-Khater, who moderated the discussion, said the DCMF is supporting the issuing of a “modern press law” that considers the changes in all fields in Qatar.
Al-Khater pledged that the Center would continue its efforts until a new law press law, free from any imprisonment penalties against journalists, is issued.
Arrayay managing editor Babikr Isa called for setting up an association to protect journalists, saying that the administrative deportation policy can reach journalists.
Isa ruled out the possibility that editors would stop exercising what he called “self-censorship” before getting “guarantees”.
Dr Rabia al-Kuwari, a Qatar University teacher of mass communication, blasted the current situation in the local press as “unacceptable”, saying the new draft law should not be referred to a committee of experts rather than the Advisory Council for discussion.
Al-Kuwari also said the proposed law should make the Qatarisation of jobs at local dailies “mandatory”.
“I blame the lack of Qatari journalists on the boards of some newspapers who are profit-oriented. If they made it a mission to train two or three journalists each year, the situation would have been different,” he added.
Arrayah deputy managing editor Sadeq Mohamed complained about what he called the “frequent summons” by the police to local journalists for interrogation over reports carried out by their newspapers.
The roundtable discussion was part of a debate over the issue that the DCFM launched since its establishment in 2007.
|
