Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Media Corporation, Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Thani (second right); Chairman of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), Dr Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri; Secretary-General of Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, H
Doha: Qatar has emerged victorious from the nine months of illegal siege imposed by the blockading countries. Speaking in seminar held with a theme ‘Qatar Dignity and Victory after nine months of siege’, officials lauded the balanced approach of Qatari media in dispelling the baseless allegations and rumours spread by siege countries to tarnish the image of Qatar. The seminar was organised by arabic daily newspaper Al Raya, which was addressed by six eminent personalities.
Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Media Corporation Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Thani said: “There is a difference in the way how the Qatari media dealt with the crisis and the media of the blockading countries”.
Qatari media resisted and responded the rumours and proved that their allegations were baseless and the Al Haqiqa “Truth” programme was one of the best examples of this, he added.
The media of the siege countries repeated Pharaoh’s saying “I show only what I can see” he said, noting that their media produced contradictory reports such as Qatar supporting terrorism, Qatar supports North Korea, supports America and supports Hamas and Palestinians.
The siege countries have even criminalised sympathy with Qatar and the feeling of someone has become a crime. The media of the siege countries used electronic flies, said Sheikh Abdulrahman, adding that victory in wars cannot be achieve while losing mind and morals.
Their media have touched the symptoms of crisis and created false interpretations and reasons for the crisis.
RIGHT: Dr. Khalid bin Mubarak Al-Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula (second right), during the seminar. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula
In contrast, the Qatari media provided the public with the correct information including information related to previous events and causes of differences with these countries Sheikh Abdulrahman emphasised. He pointed out that this was possible by hosting former Qatari ministers in the Qatar TV program the “Truth”. This was done to present the facts for the public.
But we must differentiate between the policies of these countries and their people. We call on citizens of these countries to express their opinion through the Qatari media which is open for them, he said.
Today, after all this time, they have not provided even a single evidence for their allegations. They are only repeating accusations. This was during a symposium held by the media at the Ritz-Carlton, attended by a large number of media representatives and interested individuals in political affairs .
Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary-General, Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy said: Efforts were made to disrupt the hosting of Qatar FIFA World Cup, said Hassan Al Thawadi Secretary-General, Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy stressing that Qatar will host FIFA World Cup 2022.
He said that allegations of blockading countries were always responded by the neutral entities like FIFA that confirmed hosting of FIFA World Cup by Qatar. Al Thawadi emphasised that football should be separated from the politics.
Regarding the rumours mongering that Qatar is unable to complete the projects related to FIFA World Cup, he said “we found new suppliers from various countries like Kuwait, Oman, China and Malaysia for primary materials of better quality at lower prices.”
“We had been importing from blockading countries because Qatar was relying on these countries on the principle of economic interdependence with these countries.” He said that by the end of this year, the construction works on two stadiums including Al Wakra Stadium will be completed.
“We won the trust of FIFA and others,” said Al Thawadi adding that blockading countries knew very well that the construction work is going on so they failed in their campaign. A team from Qatar will visit Russia to take experience in hosting world cup, he added.
Chairman of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), Dr Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri, said that When the diplomatic relations were cut off by the blockading countries, other measures followed which became collective punishment for the people of Qatar and citizens of these countries.
The siege countries have focused on the term ‘boycott‘ instead of the ‘siege’ and we have proved that it is a siege not boycott.
Before the siege, the Committee was receiving a total of 1,000 complaints throughout a year, but in the first two weeks of the siege, the committee received 1,000 complaints.
We have provided the human rights organisations with proofs of violations of basic rights committed by these countries and have managed to gain their support. Some of the organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even the United Nations have condemned these countries and the measure they have taken against civilians.
One of the demands of the siege countries was closure of Al Jazeera Network, therefore we hosted a conference on freedom of expression which attended by 230 international organisations and agreed that the demands and the measures taken by these countries were contrary to freedom of expression.
Regarding the United Nations report, he stressed that all these measures by the unilateral siege countries violated all human rights and did not differentiate between governments and ordinary people. The blockading countries were upset by this report and said it was not neutral. We have repeatedly asked to isolate or neutralise the humanitarian aspects from political dimensions in the future.
