This week, Qatar’s Emir told CBS that his country “wanted freedom of speech for the people of the region.”

Sheikh Tamim made the statement in defiance of demands from neighbouring nations that he should close the Qatar-funded news outlet Al Jazeera.

But while Qatar is busy patting itself on the back for bringing independent, Arab-led global news to the world, it is also busy suppressing similar voices at home.

Losing Doha News

Until very recently, I was Editor-at-Large of Doha News, Qatar’s most popular news website.

Founded in 2009 by two American journalists, Omar Chatriwala and Shabina Khatri, it stood up for truth, honesty and debate against a backdrop of the press release journalism published by local newspapers.

Doha News continued to stand for these principles even after Qatar’s government decided to block access to the site without warning last December.

And even then, despite having to shed most of…