Media
Unwanted interference
While Qatar can fly in cows to bolster its food supplies and reroute its airline to still make those onward connections to Australia, there is one aspect of the Saudi-imposed blockade that Doha can’t seem to work around: the airwaves. Al Jazeera was hit with a mysterious blackout on its social-media accounts over the weekend, while broadcast licences have been revoked – and the Saudi and Jordan bureaux shut – since the start of the spat. For one side of the blockade there must be some glee in all of this: since it launched in 1996, Al Jazeera has been a thorn in the side of the Middle East’s monarchs and autocrats, taking them to task in a way not typical of regional media outlets. Its own record is certainly not unblemished but Al Jazeera brought a contrarian voice to a region where Saudi typically sets the agenda. But its future, for now, looks rather uncertain.