Saturday, June 01, 2013

Qatar joins other Gulf States in clamping down on online media...

The Gulf nation of Qatar is set to approve a range of new measures that aim to monitor online activity by its citizens, and could well lead to punishment for websites and users that breach the ‘general order’.

The draft of the country’s new media laws has moved on to an advisory council for final approval, and has been expected at least for the past year.

In March, Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, Qatar’s Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, publicly stated that social media would be covered by the new media laws as “it is the most important form of free expression in the present world.”

Now, as AP reports, Qatar will seek wide leeway that could see consequences for online items considered a threat to ‘state security’, and it further outlaws news, video or online posts that violate the ‘sanctity’ of a person’s private life, regardless of whether it is slanderous.

 The new measures seem to resemble those enacted in other Western-backed Gulf states such as Kuwait and Bahrain, which have sharply increased arrests linked to social media posts that insult or otherwise undermine rulers. Full story...

Related posts:
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  2. Press freedom index 2011: no Asian country in the first twenty...
  3. Saudi Arabia ‘threatens to ban’ Skype, WhatsApp, other instant messaging
  4. Saudi activists silenced and the U.S. is silent...
  5. Singapore to regulate Yahoo, other online news sites...
  6. Using Skype in UAE could get you jail.. and Dh1 million fine!!!

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