blocked in Saudi Arabia for three hours. At that time, the account had nearly 12 million followers. During the same period, officials in Ri- yadh demanded the resignation of any Saudi citizen working for Al Jazeera. As a result, talk show host Ali Dhafiri stopped presenting his programme “In Depth” on June 21, 2017, and a number of other Saudi journalists left the Network. - On September 13, 2017, the Saudi authorities asked Snapchat to prevent residents of the Kingdom from accessing Al Jazeera through its application. Four days later, the company succumbed to the Saudi request (1) . During this crisis, Qatar was given a ten-day (s) ultimatum to shut down Al Jazeera, among a list of 13 demands delivered to Qatar through Kuwait (2) . Many international human rights and press freedom organi- sations including the United Nations, strongly rejected and criticised these demands (3) . In December 2020, The Guardian revealed an Israeli spyware pro- gram was used to hack the phones of dozens of Al Jazeera journalists in an unprecedented cyber-attack on the network. The newspaper said
(1) “ Our Story”, Ibid.
(2) The Qatari response in this regard was decisive. In an interview with CBS, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of Qatar, stated: “Our sovereignty is a red line. We don’t accept any- body interfering with our sovereignty. When you tell me to close down Al Jazeera, history will write, one day, in 50, 60 or 70 years, how it changed the whole idea of free speech in the region. No, we’re not going to shut down Al Jazeera”. See HH the Emir interview with Charlie Rose at “60 Minutes” on CBS, Amiri Diwan website, 30 October 2017. https://www.diwan.gov.qa/ briefing-room/news/media-participations/2017/october/30/60-minutes-interview/ (accessed on 7 March 2021). (3) On 30 June 2017, the United Nations expressed its anger at the Gulf states’ demand to shut down Al Jazeera TV channel, describing it as an “unacceptable attack on the right to freedom of expression and opinion”. Spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said he was “extremely concerned by the demand that Qatar close down the Al Jazeera network, as well as other affiliated media outlets”. Spokesperson Ru- pert Colville added “Whether or not you watch it, like it, or agree with its editorial standpoints, Al Jazeera’s Arabic and English channels are legitimate, and have many millions of viewers”. See “UN: Demand to close down Al Jazeera TV channel is an attack on the right to freedoms of expression and opinion”, the Radio Monte Carlo International website, 3 June 2017: https://bit. ly/3394n3e/ (accessed 23 November 2020).
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