DOHA: Qatar’s human rights watchdog has said there are no provisions in the draft of a new media law the country hopes to soon enforce that specify arrest of and jail terms for journalists writing against the ruling family.
The talk of the proposed media legislation having punitive provisions for writing against the royal family is absolutely baseless, according to the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC).
The NHRC said it has studied the draft and made extensive recommendations for amendments to the State Cabinet and some 90 percent of the alterations it has suggested have been accepted.
“There is no article in the draft law that talks of arresting a scribe for writing against the royal family as claimed by international human rights groups in media reports recently,” stated Dr Ali Semaikh Al Marri, Chairman of NHRC. “Actually, the draft law doesn’t talk of journalists’ arrest at all.”
Delivering a lecture at Qatar University recently on ‘Human Rights Issues in Qatar’, Al Marri said: “We in the NHRC would like to assure that all aspects related to freedom of speech have been taken care of. The new law would protect journalists and it would guarantees freedom.”
Whatever has appeared in the international media over the past few days is incorrect, Al Marri said, referring to reports that suggested late last month that instead of supporting press freedom, this draft media law is a commitment to censorship.
According to him, Qatar is signatory to international conventions and is so committed to having laws in place that do not in part or full contradict the provisions of those conventions.
The present era is such that world attention is so much on human rights that one cannot ignore it. Human rights are now an integral part of international relations. It is not like 10 years ago. “But, unfortunately, human rights are being violated in many parts of the world,” said Al Marri.
“The entire concept of human rights is changing. One must respect human rights today to have a legitimate government,” said Al Marri, hinting that the very legitimacy of a government was dependent on how much a state respected basic rights.
Al Marri said the new media law was on the anvil and would soon be put in force without specifying a time-frame. It may be recalled for quite sometime the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage which will be responsible for enforcing and monitoring the said law has been saying that the new legislation was about to be implemented.
The Ministry has since been silent on the issue, perhaps embarrassed that the law did not see the light of day after Ramadan as promised by it repeatedly.
The Peninsula
