7. Tension in the Gulf and Al Jazeera in the Eye of the Storm In a research paper entitled “Media fabrication and demonisation of Qatar’s politics”, Mohamed Erraji observes the media, through its orchestrated communication efforts to create a symbolic and illusory political reality, uses certain political frameworks to achieve its expect- ed objectives. In order to serve the agenda of political decision-makers, it turns into an arsenal of propaganda and media warfare while lending a blind eye to professional practices. Such a propaganda contributes to creating or escalating political crises, which was evident in the media campaign that targeted Qatar and its political symbols in the Gulf cri- sis (1) . Soon after former U.S. President Donald Trump finished his first trip as leader to Saudi Arabia on May 20, 2017, the Gulf region was about to witness an unprecedented regional crisis. Qatar and Al Jazeera had become the targets of a coordinated diplomatic, political and eco- nomic blockade. The following are some of the actions taken against Al Jazeera by the blockading countries: - On May 24, 2017, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain blocked Al Jazeera’s websites (2) , followed by Egypt the next day. - On June 5, 2017, the day the four Arab nations imposed their blockade of Qatar, Saudi Arabia withdrew Al Jazeera’s license, banning its operations in the country, and the following day Jordan took similar actions. - On June 9, 2017, Saudi officials threatened to terminate the li- cense of any hotel in the kingdom that broadcasts Al Jazeera’s channels in its guest rooms. - On June 17, 2017, Al Jazeera’s main account on Twitter was (1) Mohamed Erraji, “Media fabrication and demonisation of Qatar’s politics to blow up a crisis in the Gulf”, Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, 19 June 2017: https://bit.ly/2IZv5o4/ (ac- cessed 23 November 2020). (2) “Blocking Al Jazeera Websites and Qatar’s Newspapers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain”, Al Bayan (UAE), 25 May 2017: https://bit.ly/3lVyHFL/ (accessed 23 November 2020).
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