Europe criticizes Qatar’s human rights violations

European official called Qatar on Monday  to abandon the laws they made that restrict press freedom , and suppress activists he also expressed Europe concern about those roles.

 

Eimon Gilmore, the representative of the European Union for Human Rights, called Doha to cancel several laws that limits press freedom, saying: “I am concerned about some laws related to press freedom.”

 

He referred to the 1979 Press Law, which governs the licensing of publications and allows officials to request corrections to news.

 

Under the law, publications can be suspended to be published for 3 months if news is published that it considers inconsistent with the public interest.

 

The European Union delegation, which is visiting Qatar, also concerns about the Prevention of Cybercrime Law, which was issued in 2014, and which provides for three years imprisonment for anyone convicted of establishing a digital platform for “fake news”, but what is not defined as “fake news” In that law.

 

This punishment has been increased to 5 years recently in case of proven “bad targets”. “We call for the withdrawal of those laws,” Gilmore said.

 

Independent United Nations experts have previously warned that Qatar’s “strict” laws amounting to arbitrary detention are a clear violation of freedom of expression.

 

At a time Qatar showing that is supporting media freedom, didn’t left any Arab or foreign country interfered in its affairs, in the same time Qatari government didn’t allowed foreign journalists who tried to convey the truth, they arrested them and did not give them press freedom to practice their work.

 

In an attempt to clear there mistake in front of international public opinion, Qatar invited Western journalists to see personally how the government improved the living conditions of workers specialized in the construction works of the “World Cup 2022”, in May 2015, but when the BBC correspondent Mark Lubbell tried to get away from Qatari security men to verify the allegations personally, he was arrested with the rest of the staff, and they all spent two days in prison.

 

The arrest of the British BBC is not the first time that it has taken place in Doha. The Qatari authorities had previously arrested German journalist Florian Bauer and his team for 5 days in March of the same year because of his coverage of foreign workers’ housing and his criticism of their living conditions. And criticizing The tragic  conditions that employment experienced in Doha.