Fake news and the Gulf crisis | Inside Story

Описание: A fake news story triggered a major geo-political crisis in May last year and the effects are still being felt across the Gulf nations.

It began when Qatar's national news agency was hacked. On its pages were comments attributed to the Emir of Qatar which were completely false.

Despite that, they were broadcast by Al Arabiya and other channels, leading Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to cut all ties with Qatar. The four countries later handed over a list of 13 demands, that included shutting down Al Jazeera, demands that were rejected.

Qatar then lodged a complaint against Al Arabiya at the British media watchdog Ofcom which is investigating the case. Qatar's News Agency says it was the inquiry that led the Saudi-owned channel to surrender its licence to the broadcast regulator. Al Arabiya denies QNA's claim and says it surrendered its licence for business reasons. The channel accuses Al Jazeera of exaggerating the decision to give up its license which means it can't broadcast in the UK and the EU.

Last month Ofcom fined the Dubai-based TV station almost 170-thousands dollars for airing statements by a jailed Bahraini opposition leader.


Presenter: Martine Dennis

Guests:
Mohamad Elmasry - Chair of the Journalism Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies
Tom Law - Director of Campaigns and Communications at the Ethical Journalism Network
Pierluigi Paganini - Founder of Security Affairs blog and member of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security.

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