Press Freedom in the Arab World

Al Jazeera gets such a bum rap in the United States because they are perceived as being biased against the United States and overly critical of US foreign policy. It’s not a fair evaluation, which is not surprising given that it is too often made based on hearsay by people who don’t speak Arabic, but that is not my concern in this post.
The network also does a very good job of holding Middle East governments to account. In fact, that has often gotten them into trouble. This is an episode of Inside Story, a program that is broadcast on the English service of Al Jazeera, assessing freedom of the press in the Arab World.

Al-Jazeera operates in Qatar almost completely free of official interference, but I also don’t recall seeing critical coverage of Qatar or much coverage from the Emirates, at all. You don’t hear much from those countries in which a tightly controlled press is the norm such as Saudi Arabia or Syria. The clampdown in Morocco is significant because there are fears that it signals the end of a long period of liberalization.
Thanks to 3arabawy for finding it.