Doha News blocked at home

Rights advocates were quick to respond to news that access to the Doha News website had been blocked to domestic internet users. Doha News on 1 December said its dohanews.co URL was “apparently blocked [the previous day] by both of Qatar’s internet service providers, Ooredoo and Vodaphone, simultaneously” It comes after a period when Doha News has covered some controversial (by Gulf standards) topics in depth. In a statement, Amnesty International’s James Lynch (a former British diplomat, once based in Doha) called the interdiction “an alarming setback for freedom of expression” and “an outright attack on media freedom”.