Qatar closes four sections in Al Araby Television Network

CAIRO- 10 August 2017: The Qatari government closed four sections in Al Araby Television Network and laid off 40 employees from it, which is considered a move to reduce its spending on the media outlets, a senior official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Doha affirmed their intention to reduce spending on media outlets and started with the new media network, Al Araby Television channel, which is headed by Azmi Bishara and broadcasted in Arabic from London.

Doha also withdrew Qatari residence from Islam Lotfy, Al-Araby Television Network’s former CEO, added a senior official.

Al-Araby Television Network has recently witnessed many economic problems and a number of tourism companies threatened to resort to the British judiciary for the network to pay €130,000 ($169K) owed to them.

British reports revealed that the Qatari channel violated the strict British law on companies’ payment of taxes owed to the government.

The Qatari channel rejected all requests for salary increases by employees and ignored the annual increase in British companies, which is usually estimated by 1 or 2 percent.

On June 5, a number of Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, cut all diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar over accusations of funding terrorist groups in the region.

The Arab quartet issued 13 demands to Doha, including closing Al Jazeera television, curbing relations with Iran and shutting down a Turkish military base.