Doha News is an online

news blog Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, a ...

started in March 2009 by two American journalists, Shabina Khatri and Omar Chatriwala. It is based in

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

and provides its readers with daily reports on breaking domestic and international news stories. It gained considerable popularity in May 2012 when it became the first news outlet in Qatar to report on the

Villagio Mall Villaggio Mall is a shopping mall located in the Aspire Zone in the west end of Doha, the capital city of Qatar. It is located on Al Waab street between the Hyatt Plaza and Sports City and has over 200 stores, including many famous brands in the U. ...

fire.

Development history

In March 2009, Shabina Khatri created the Doha News account on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. She and her husband, Omar Chatriwala, went on to launch a stand-alone website. It was the first digital news outlet established in the country. They have stated that their aim is to create a media platform in which they could engage the audience in a manner dissimilar to traditional forms of media. Doha News quickly increased in popularity due to its coverage of controversial local events not as widely reported in government-run media, with a notable instance being the May 2012

fire in which 19 people were killed. It succeeded in obtaining and releasing verifiable figures and facts, such as the identities of the victims of the fire, whereas many other forms of online media reported unverified rumors. It experienced a massive increase in visitors during the event, increasing from about 10,000 visitors a day to 100,000 visitors a day. On the contrary, traditional media was criticized for its late and minimal coverage of the incident. Another sensitive story published by the website centered on the rape and prosecution of Qatari resident Marte Dalelv in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. It was not mentioned in print media, but appeared in international publications such as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' after Doha News published a news article on the case. Similarly, after the murder of Lauren Patterson in October 2013, it was the most notable Qatari media outlet to report on the killing and some of its work was quoted in international newspapers.

Content

Social issues such as alcohol, dress codes and other cultural issues often generate the most popularity in terms of visitors and comments. Criticism has been leveled by nationals who allege that the content disproportionately focuses on the negative aspects of Qatar. A commenting policy and stricter moderation of comments was introduced after the comments section witnessed an increase in offensive remarks.

Censorship

Doha News has provided coverage on a range of controversial subjects in recent years. Although the couple have not experienced any reprisals by the government, they claim that there are obstacles to obtaining reliable information. In February 2013, the site was prevented from reporting on the court proceedings of the Villagio Mall fire. During the hearing, the presiding judge asked the court whether there were any journalists present. After Shabina Khatri and another journalist confirmed that they were media personalities, the judge told them that they had to submit a request for permission to report on the hearings. After Khatri submitted the request, the judge responded by informing her that she was required to prove that Doha News was an official media outlet.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:News, Doha Mass media in Doha Qatari news websites Internet properties established in 2009 2009 establishments in Qatar