The Qatar campus of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism rises formidably out of the desert like a temple to something grand, mysterious and exotic. And in a way, that is what it is.
Despite the reputation for outspoken journalism that Qatar has built up over the years by hosting the feisty Al Jazeera network, the local press is still a long way – legally and culturally – from being able to practise the kind of sceptical, American-style journalism that Medill is now teaching. The country is still operating under a 1979 media law that allows journalists to be jailed, helping to create a situation that the Doha Centre for Media Freedom recently said “encourages self-censorship and makes it difficult to criticise the government”.
But the opening of the journalism school last year and the media advocacy centre in 2007 – both with government backing – indicates that there is political will at the highest levels for things to change for Doha’s local press.
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