Qatar News Agency () is a state-run

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 ...

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswir ...

.Qatar News Agency (QNA) - news agency in Doha, Qatar with local news and community events

History and profile

Qatar News Agency was established by a decree issued on 25 May 1975. It is attached to the Ministry of Information. The former parent ministry was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The headquarters of the agency is in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...

. The Agency is headed by Mr Ahmed Saeed Jaber Al-Rumaihi since October 2021. By 1980, QNA signed collaborative agreements with the news agencies of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, France and Tunisia, in addition to opening a bureau in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

, the administrative center of the Arab League at that time. The agency provides news in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and English. It has also Spanish and Portuguese news services.

Administration

Emiri Resolution No. (50) of 2014 was issued regarding the organization of the management of the Qatar News Agency. In accordance with this decision, the agency's management structure has been transformed to consist of: # Office of the Director General, # Internal Audit Department, # Planning and Quality Department, # Legal Affairs Department, # Public Relations and Communication Department, # Shared Services Department, # Data Analysis and Documentation Department, # Editorial and Media Monitoring Department, # News Department, # External Media Affairs Department, # Technical Affairs Department.

Past administrators

Several personalities had led the agency since establishment. Below is the list of past and present directors of QNA: # Director and Editor-in-Chief 1) Othman Abu Zaid 1975–1980 (Egyptian) # Issa bin Saeed Al Kuwari 1980–1994 (Director and Editor-in-Chief) # Ahmed Jassim Al Hamar 1994–2007 (Director and Editor-in-Chief) # Sheikh Jabr bin Yusuf Al Thani 2007–2011 (Director-General) # Ahmed Saeed Al Buainain 2011–2017 (Director-General) # Yousef Al Maliki 2017–2021 (Director-General) # Ahmed bin Said Jabor Al Rumaihi 2021–present (Director-General)

Membership

Qatar News Agency is a member of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), which aims to strengthen Arab media, in order to devdlope Arab News Agencies through the techniques and technology that they use. QNA is also a member of the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool (NANAP), the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), the Union of OIC News Agencies and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

May 2017 incident

On 24 May Qatar stated that the website was hacked by an unknown source and that fake stories on sensitive issues were published before the site went offline. Subsequently, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates blocked Qatari media, including broadcaster

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

. On 5 June Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, and Maldives severed their relations with Qatar accusing it of supporting terrorism. According to Qatar-based Al Jazeera, hackers posted fake remarks on the official Qatar News Agency attributed to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani ( ar, تميم بن حمد بن خليفة آل ثاني; born 3 June 1980, Doha, Qatar) is the Emir of Qatar who succeeded his father, Sheikh Hamad, after Hamad abdicated in his favour. Tamim is the fourth son ...

, that expressed support for Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel. The emir was quoted as saying: "Iran represents a regional and Islamic power that cannot be ignored and it is unwise to face up against it. It is a big power in the stabilization of the region."Trump's 'Arab NATO' Vision is a Desert Mirage
. Stratfor. 31 May 2017. Qatar reported that the statements were false and did not know their origin. Despite this, the remarks were widely publicized in the various Arab news media, including UAE-based

Sky News Arabia Sky News Arabia (stylised as Sky News عربية) ( ar, سكاي نيوز عربية ') is an Arabic 24-hour rolling news channel broadcast mainly in the Middle East and North Africa. It is a joint venture between UK-based Sky Group and Abu Dha ...

and

Al Arabiya Arabiya ( ar, العربية, transliterated: '; meaning "The Arabic One" or "The Arab One") is an international Arabic news television channel, currently based in Dubai, that is operated by the media conglomerate MBC. The channel is a fl ...

. On 3 June 2017, the Twitter account of Bahraini foreign minister

Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa (born 24 April 1960) is a Bahraini diplomat who served as Bahrain's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 until January 2020. Khalid became only the second foreign minister in Bahrain's history after replacing Moham ...

was hacked. Initially alleged Intelligence gathered by the US security agencies indicated that Russian hackers were behind the intrusion first reported by the Qataris.Evan Perez & Shimon Prokupecz
US suspects Russian hackers planted fake news behind Qatar crisis
CNN (6 June 2017).

Patrick Wintour Patrick Wintour (born 1 November 1954) is a British journalist and the diplomatic editor of ''The Guardian''. He was the political editor of ''The Guardian'' from 2006 to 2015 and was formerly the newspaper's chief political correspondent for t ...

Russian hackers to blame for sparking Qatar crisis, FBI inquiry finds
(7 June 2017). However, a U.S. official briefed on the inquiry told ''

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 d ...

'' that it "was unclear whether the hackers were state-sponsored" Mark Landler
Trump Takes Credit for Saudi Move Against Qatar, a U.S. Military Partner
''New York Times'' (6 June 2017). and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' diplomatic editor

reported that "It is believed that the Russian government was not involved in the hacks; instead, freelance hackers were paid to undertake the work on behalf of some other state or individual." A U.S. diplomat said that Russia and its ally Iran stood to benefit from sowing discord among U.S. allies in the region, "particularly if they made it more difficult for the United States to use Qatar as a major base." The FBI sent a team of investigators to

to help the Qatari government investigate the hacking incident. Later

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 ...

reported that the hacking incidents may be part of long running cyberwar between Qatar and other Gulf countries that was only revealed to the public during the recent incidents and they noted how Saudi and UAE media picked up the statement made by the hacked media in less than 20 minutes and began interviewing many well-prepared commentators against Qatar. On 16 July, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' revealed that US intelligence officials pin-pointed the hack as being carried out by the UAE. The intelligence officials stated that the hacking was discussed among Emirati officials on 23 May, one day before the operation took place. The UAE denied any involvement in the hacking. It was announced on 26 August 2017 that five individuals allegedly involved in the hacking were arrested in Turkey.

References