(Text of the Statement)
At a time when international human rights organizations, journalists’ unions around the major international media have gathered to condemn the demands of the blockading countries to close Al-Jazeera and its arbitrary measures to close its offices, and called on those organizations to respect the freedom of expression and the right to access information and protect journalists; while the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression condemned the attacks by the blockading States on those freedoms in a flagrant violation of human rights,
And Following the Doha International Conference on “Freedom of Expression: Facing up to the threats” held from 24 to 25 July 2017, including the widespread condemnations of violations of freedom of opinion and expression in general and condemnation of the demands of the countries of the blockade that violate these freedoms and rights, as well as the solidarity with Al-Jazeera, carried out by the representatives of (200) international organizations of the participants in the conference,
On 6 August 2017, the Israeli occupation authorities closed the office of Al-Jazeera TV in Jerusalem and withdrew the accreditation of its journalists, in a flagrant violation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to information access.
The Human Rights Committee in Qatar condemns these attacks and the blatant defiance of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The Israeli decision to close the office of Al-Jazeera TV is a critical precedent in the bias of the Israeli occupation towards the decisions of the countries of the blockade and the related violations of the rights to Opinion, expression and the right to access information.
The National Human Rights Committee of the State of Qatar denounces these provocative actions by the Israeli authorities and the serious violations of freedom of opinion and expression by the Foreign Ministers of the countries of the blockade at the recent Manama meeting; and calls on international organizations and journalists’ unions to stand up to this vicious and systematic campaign targeting free media And its journalists not only on Al Jazeera but on all the free, professional and independent media in the world.
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