Why a fight over closing down a global media outlet that rivals or surpasses BBC? ‘To Kill the Democratic Spirit of the Region’

We begin this week with a look at ourselves – the Al Jazeera media network – which is at the heart of the current diplomatic showdown in the Gulf.

A Saudi-led coalition of countries backed by US president Donald Trump, is demanding Qatar’s government shuts down its prized Al Jazeera Media Network. Qatar refuses and says the future of Al Jazeera is non-negotiable.

Ever since Qatar launched the first pan Arab news channel, Al Jazeera Arabic, in 1996, the network has infuriated many Arab rulers by providing the kind of news coverage that viewers in those countries – raised on a strict diet of state-controlled TV – had not seen before, at least not in Arabic.

Over those two decades, some of Qatar’s neighbours launched their own state-funded TV pan-Arab news channels to present an alternative, more controlled narrative. The idea was to counter voices on Al Jazeera Arabic, some of which those governments say should never be offered an on-air platform, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood being one example of that.

There are as many angles to this story as there are governments involved and with the Trump White House also in the mix, the implications now extend well beyond the Middle East.

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