Police threat to rumour-mongers
According to The Peninsula:
"DOHA: The Civil Defence chief, Brigadier Abdullah Mohamed Al Suwaidi, yesterday issued a warning to rumour mongers. He said some people had sent text messages to their friends and relatives saying there had been casualties in yesterday’s fire. “I warn such people against spreading rumours. There have been no casualties. People sending such SMS messages will be taken to task. We will initiate legal action against them,” he was quoted as saying by QNA. "
This implies two things: that any statement that can be construed as negative towards Qatar can lead to prosecution unless you can prove in court that it is true; and that all text messages are recorded by Q-tel and scrutinised for unacceptable content.
We all know that people pass on rumours believing them to be true. I initially believed the rumour that several people had died, which was credible, and could have SMS'd someone about it in good faith. But according to Brigadier al-Suwaidi it is illegal for me to tell people something I have been told and think is true unless I verify it first.
Since there is no way to verify whether someone has died in a fire except to check with the hospital, which has orders not to release such information, or the police or Civil Defence, who won't say anything unless it is officially released from headquarters, this threat makes it illegal to say anybody died in a car crash or a fire unless you have personally seen the body and even if you have it is illegal for anyone you tell to pass on that information. So this doesn't just stop falsehoods being passed on, it stops any information at all being passed on.
This takes freedom of speech back 15 years, to the era when Arrayah was warned by the police for daring to print a photo showing smoke from a burning boat in the Oasis marina, because it contradicted the official position that nothing bad ever happens in Doha.
I hope the Civil Defence department's out-of-date, threatening attitude will earn it a stiff rebuke from higher powers and we won't hear such nonsense again.
The irony is that even if the officer concerned is ordered to stop saying such things, the rumour started by this story from QNA, that there is no freedom of speech in Qatar, will continue to circulate because officially cancelling the threat would cause loss of face.
In the end, the reality of this threat will be apparent from whether or not the person who posted the rumour here (surely a worse offence than test messaging) is prosecuted. I trust the noble and eagle-eyed gentlemen of the Press will keep an eye out for any such court case and let us know whether or not we can still chat about current events.
...NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yeah and a cow jumped over the moon... :P
and the moon is made of cheese......LoL
bad girl.. ;-)
so if no crimes means that what i read in gulf times is not the truth.... oohhhh
there were no fire in Qatar as much as there are no crimes in the country ...
this country is doing anything but make expats feel welcome and comfortable....and as for been well paid, its because they don't have the skills and experience to do the job themselves....
There are no monitoring!
Correction ; No Freedom of rumours
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- Listen to Many...Speak to a Few -
Spreading rumuors only causes panic & confusion. the only way to stop the rumours is by letting the facts out.
zetec, i fail to see the relevance of my photo to the topic being discussed..
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I think, they think, they can, Nic.
Raven1968,
You said it all.
This kind of threat is pathetic and childish.
Not surprised from where it came, but a newspaper actually publishing it?!!!!
WTF, they think that they can treat citizens as kindergarten kids!
No freedom of speech..
Good one, those idiots should be punished.
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- Listen to Many...Speak to a Few -
you just "polished" your comment but no diff from Ravens'
I'm sure they know who you are, too, Raven. It's also not a fair comment. I think they do extremely well to run a nation with a population that would have no more talent than found on a town council in many countries.
this country is a laughing stock, run by uneducated baffoons on ego trips!!
agree with janeyjaney, the only way to stop people from spreading rumours and making their own speculations is to set the record straight.. if there were casualties, they should say so..
Well then they should provide news stating all the facts to avoid all these. Why do they react to such things? Instead of threatening the rumour-mongers, they should make a public announcement if there were casualties or not. Unless they are trying to hide something of course.
The internet is our revenge machine
monitor text messages. 2 of my neighbors were hauled off to jail because of messages sent between the two. They were let off after a couple of hours and a stern warning. They were goofing around texting obscene jokes to each other.
Foolish - exactly. And there is a deep-rooted culture in some quarters of trying to silence criticism by refusing to answer questions and then threatening to sue if anything "unauthorised" appears.
Alumnar, I don't know if they do or not. It probably depends on whether they trigger an alert by containing particular words. The US government certainly has mountains of private communications it reads.
It did once take two hours for an e-mail about terrorism and America that I sent from my house to my work to arrive. I don't know if it was the Qataris or the Americans who intercepted it but somebody certainly did.
there is no official statement from what has happened.
So it should be a criminal offence to gossip about things unless they have been cleared by the authorities. Fine.
Holy Moly...!!! Great place to be.......
what they said is right....spreading rumours about casualties does indeed panic people,which is quite uncalled for....especially in such times
Going to church no more makes you a Christian than standing in a garage makes you a car. ~ Garrison Keillor