In Saudi Arabia’s sights, Al Jazeera puts out statement demanding press freedom

A week after Al Jazeera wrote an open letter in response to the Saudi Arabia-led bloc’s demand to shut down its operations, the Doha-based media network put out a statement demanding press freedom today.

In its statement, Al Jazeera said, “Any call for closing down or obstructing access to our channels is an attempt to silence freedom of expression.”

The statement also included a short vox pop with reporters recording the statement in parts.

The statement read: 

“To those who demand that Al Jazeera be shut down and that people’s right to the truth be suppressed, we too have demands.

We demand journalists be able to do their jobs free from intimidation and threat. We demand diversity of thought and opinion be cherished, not feared.

We demand the public have access to unbiased information.

We demand journalists not be treated as criminals.

We demand those without a voice be heard.

We demand press freedom.

At Al Jazeera, we believe that any call for closing down or obstructing access to our channels is nothing but an attempt to silence freedom of expression and to suppress people’s right to information and the right to be heard.

You can join the conversation and share your demands on the hashtag #DemandPressFreedom.”

The managing director of Al Jazeera, Giles Trendle, had earlier called on “all governments to respect media freedom”.

Al Jazeera’s statement has come almost a month after four Arabic countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and United Arab Emirates, cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed trade sanction on it.

The UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, said the demand to shut down Al Jazeera in a diplomatic setting was a “major blow to media pluralism”.