UN: Demand to shut Al Jazeera an 'unacceptable attack'

The UN human rights chief has called the demand by 
a Saudi- led bloc to close Al Jazeera an "unacceptable 
attack on the right to freedom of expression and opinion".

UN High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein "is extremely
concerned by the demand that Qatar close down the Al
Jazeera network, as well as other affiliated media outlets",
Hussein's spokesman Rupert Colville said on Friday.

"Whether or not you watch it, like it, or agree with its editorial
standpoints, Al Jazeera's Arabic and English channels are
legitimate, and have many millions of viewers," Colville added.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties
with Qatar and imposed sanctions on the country on June 5,
accusing it of supporting "terrorism", an allegation Doha has
rejected as "baseless".

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Last week, the Saudi-led bloc gave Qatar 10 days to comply
with 13 demands to end a major diplomatic crisis in the Gulf,
insisting, among other things, that Doha shut down Al Jazeera,
close a Turkish military base and scale down ties with Iran .

The demands also included the closure of all news 
outlets that Qatar allegedly funds, directly and indirectly, including Arabi21, Rassd, Al Araby Al Jadeed, Mekameleen and Middle East Eye.

Colville said that "if states have an issue with items 
broadcast on other countries' television channels, they 
are at liberty to publicly debate and dispute them", adding 
that "to insist that such channels be shut down is extraordinary, unprecedented and clearly unreasonable."

He also said that if a closure were to happen, "it would open
a Pandora's Box of powerful individual states or groups of
states seriously undermining the right to freedom of
expression and opinion in other states, as well as in their

own."

Al Jazeera has described the Saudi-led campaign as 
"nothing but an attempt to silence the freedom of 
expression in the region and to suppress people's right to information and the right to be heard".

Giles Trendle, the acting managing director of Al Jazeera's
English-language service, also denounced the demands 
by the Arab states as an attempt to suppress free expression.

"We are stunned by the demand to close Al Jazeera," 
Trendle said. "Of course, there has been talk about it in the past, but it is still a great shock and surprise to actually 
see it in writing. It's as absurd as it would be for Germany 
to demand Britain to close the BBC."

He added that Al Jazeera is going to continue its 
"editorial mission of covering the world news in a fair and balanced way".

Growing list of support

Hussein joins the growing list of individuals and 
organisations that have expressed their support for Al Jazeera.

On Wednesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists
 (CPJ) urged the Saudi-led bloc to drop its demand
 to shut down Qatar-funded media outlets.

In a letter directed to the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the
 United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, the CPJ 
stressed it was not taking sides in the diplomatic 
dispute in the Gulf.

The CPJ, an independent organisation that promotes 
press freedom worldwide, said the demand to close the outlets, including Al Jazeera, showed "clear contempt 
for the principle of press freedom".

On Monday, a trade association representing more 
than 80 media companies voiced its support for Al 
Jazeera amid the Saudi-led campaign to have the 
network shut down.

"It is vital we value and protect the independence 
of media organisations and journalists around the 
world. Any effort to silence journalists or use news organisations as a bargaining chip is an affront to 
freedom," a statement by the Digital Content Next 
association said.

Last week, The Guardian newspaper said in an editorial 
that the demand by the Saudi-led bloc was "wrong".

"The attack on Al Jazeera is part of an assault on free 
speech to subvert the impact of old and new media in the Arab world. It should be condemned and resisted," the 
editorial published by The Guardian on Friday said.


Media watchdogs, human rights groups and prominent
commentators have also condemned the demand 
to close Al Jazeera as "outrageous", "absurd" and "worrying".

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, 
Qatar's foreign minister, has said that Al Jazeera Media Network is an "internal affair" and there will be no discussion about the fate of the Doha-based broadcaster during the diplomatic crisis.

The UAE ambassador to Russia said in an interview 
with The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday that his 
country does "not claim to have press freedom".

He was responding to a question about whether the 
demand to close Al Jazeera was reasonable.

"We do not promote the idea of press freedom. What 
we talk about is responsibility in speech," he said.