The Medill School of Journalism offered Jenny Hontz and her husband teaching positions at Northwestern's new satellite campus in Qatar last fall. They discussed it and were almost ready to accept. But a December visit to the small Persian Gulf country changed their minds.
"I spoke to local reporters who assured me there is no such thing as free speech or a free press in Qatar," said Hontz, a freelance journalist and longtime instructor in Medill's summer "Cherubs" program.
As classes wrap up their seventh week, professors say Northwestern University in Qatar is running smoothly. Still, some question the feasibility of teaching journalism in a country without a free press.
Although Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani officially lifted censorship in 1995, the Qatari government still has substantial control over the press. According to the U.S. State Department's 2007 Human Rights report, members of the ruling family own nearly all media, and foreign media is censored before it reaches citizens. Media outlets must be licensed by the government, according to the Qatari embassy Web site.
During Hontz's visit, Qatari police twice stopped her from using a video camera in the mall. There are cultural taboos against taking photos of women in public without their permission, Hontz said, which makes video journalism difficult, if not impossible.
"You can teach them where to put the commas and how to use a camera," Hontz said. "But I'm not sure how students will get practical experience if they can't go off-campus and report on what's happening in the city."
Qatar was a sparsely populated desert until oil was discovered in the 1940s, and it became an independent nation in 1971. The wealthy nation's cities seem to have sprung up overnight, and Qatar has rapidly enacted several social and educational reforms. Qatar was the first Gulf state to allow women to vote and run for office. The government pays the tuition of all Qataris in Education City and offers generous loan packages to non-Qataris. The country is widely considered one of the more liberal countries in the Middle East.
The rulers continue to emphasize its commitment to a free press, and Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site says the press law is "now being updated."
Media owners everywhere, including those in the U.S., meddle with the coverage, said Richard Roth, senior associate dean for journalism at NU-Q. Reporters are universally reluctant to criticize their bosses, Roth said. The difference is that, in the Middle East, the boss is often the government. While many journalists in Qatar are hesitant to question the government, it has less to do with oppressive rule and more to do with civic pride, Roth said.
"They do avoid criticizing the royal family, but most students say, 'What's there to criticize?,'" he said.
Dona Fernandes, a Qatari native and freshman at Medill in Qatar, says openly critiquing the royal family would weaken the country.
"For the welfare of a country where there is a kingdom, the reputation of the king and kingdom is supreme," Fernandes said.
Other students want to open up the press.
"They have reduced the censorship a bit, but not enough," said Ashlene Ramadan, a Lebanese freshman. "Newspapers should be able to write freely and tell the readers more stories that are happening in Qatar."
Nadene Ghouri, a British journalist now freelancing for the BBC, worked for the news network Al-Jazeera English from 2006 to 2008 in Doha, where the network was founded. She left Qatar out of frustration that she could not report on human rights abuses in the country since the Qatari government funds Al-Jazeera English.
"Al-Jazeera English brands itself as the voice of the voiceless," Ghouri said. "But I began to feel very hypocritical, driving to work and seeing poor Sri Lankans building tower blocks and not being able to report that."
Qatar's laws governing foreign workers are little better than slavery, according to the 2007 U.S. State Department Human Rights report on Qatar. Non-Qataris must get permission from their employer to leave the country, change jobs and establish residency. Ghouri heard tales of foreign construction workers living in overcrowded labor camps, but journalists were never permitted to investigate them.
"If students wanted to go into the labor camps, would they be allowed to do that?" Ghouri asked. "We at Al-Jazeera weren't. If they're not allowed to do those kinds of stories, what's the point? "
Journalism professors in Qatar say they will continue to emphasize the importance of a free press, but will broaden the scope of media law classes to teach students to work within restrictive press laws.
"The last thing we want is for our students to end up in prison," Roth said.
Free press or not, teaching the fundamentals of journalism in Qatar is no different than in Evanston, said Medill professor Ibrahim Abusharif.
"Obviously, journalism done right requires a free press," Abusharif said. "But what are the genetics of good journalism? Loyalty to facts and loyalty to the reader. We try to convey sound principles, and the burden is on the student to do something about it."
s-sumadi@northwestern.edu
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