Doha News Publisher Omar Chatriwala
As many are aware, Doha News became inaccessible to most online users in Qatar as of yesterday, Nov. 30.
Our URL – dohanews.co – was apparently blocked by both of Qatar’s internet service providers, Ooredoo and Vodafone, simultaneously.
Since then, the majority of people in the country have been unable to access our website on their desktop computers and mobile devices.
Exceptions included access to a VPN (virtual private network) or unfiltered corporate internet.
Yesterday, Doha News put in requests for information from the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA), Ooredoo, Vodafone, the Government Communications Office (GCO) and Qatar’s National Information Security Center (Q-Cert.)
While we waited for their response, we temporarily diverted readers from dohanews.co to another domain name, doha.news.
However, that URL also stopped working in short order.
Deliberately blocked
Given this development and the silence from the government and ISP providers, we can only conclude that our website has been deliberately targeted and blocked by Qatar authorities.
We are incredibly disappointed with this decision, which appears to be an act of censorship.
We believe strongly in the importance of a free press, and are saddened that Qatar, home of the Doha Center for Media Freedom and Al Jazeera, has decided to take this step.
We are also puzzled because authorities did not discuss any concerns they had with us before taking such serious action.
The biggest fallout of this is that most of Qatar loses access to one of the country’s only independent news outlets.
Doha News has served the community for nearly eight years.
Our team of professional journalists has always aimed to draw the community together by informing and engaging them, and sparking debate on important issues.
Our audience – a multicultural group of nearly one million unique users a month – come to Doha News because we publish high-quality stories that are researched and verified.
They also know that we do not shrink from asking difficult questions to those in power, something other news outlets in Qatar often fail to do.
Rampant speculation
We know, as journalists, that refusing to confirm the act of blocking Doha News will only lead to more questions.
This can already be seen on Twitter. The hashtag #حظر_موقع_دوحة_نيوز (Doha News website ban) is already being used by residents to discuss the issue in Arabic; hundreds more are speculating about what happened in English.
The ubiquitous nature of the internet makes it impossible to hide when decisions are not transparent.
We hope that the Qatari authorities will reconsider their decision and unblock our site.
Posts
Thank you for reaching out to us. We are happy to receive your opinion and request. If you need advert or sponsored post, We’re excited you’re considering advertising or sponsoring a post on our blog. Your support is what keeps us going. With the current trend, it’s very obvious content marketing is the way to go. Banner advertising and trying to get customers through Google Adwords may get you customers but it has been proven beyond doubt that Content Marketing has more lasting benefits.
We offer majorly two types of advertising:
1. Sponsored Posts: If you are really interested in publishing a sponsored post or a press release, video content, advertorial or any other kind of sponsored post, then you are at the right place.
WHAT KIND OF SPONSORED POSTS DO WE ACCEPT?
Generally, a sponsored post can be any of the following:
Press release
Advertorial
Video content
Article
Interview
This kind of post is usually written to promote you or your business. However, we do prefer posts that naturally flow with the site’s general content. This means we can also promote artists, songs, cosmetic products and things that you love of all products or services.
DURATION & BONUSES
Every sponsored article will remain live on the site as long as this website exists. The duration is indefinite! Again, we will share your post on our social media channels and our email subscribers too will get to read your article. You’re exposing your article to our: Twitter followers, Facebook fans and other social networks.
We will also try as much as possible to optimize your post for search engines as well.
Submission of Materials : Sponsored post should be well written in English language and all materials must be delivered via electronic medium. All sponsored posts must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail on Microsoft Word unless otherwise noted.
PRICING
The price largely depends on if you’re writing the content or we’re to do that. But if your are writing the content, it is $60 per article.
2. Banner Advertising: We also offer banner advertising in various sizes and of course, our prices are flexible. you may choose to for the weekly rate or simply buy your desired number of impressions.
Technical Details And Pricing
Banner Size 300 X 250 pixels : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Banner Size 728 X 90 pixels: Appears on the top right Corner of the homepage and all pages on the site.
Large rectangle Banner Size (336x280) : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Small square (200x200) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Half page (300x600) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Portrait (300x1050) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Billboard (970x250) : Appears on the home page.
Submission of Materials : Banner ads can be in jpeg, jpg and gif format. All materials must be deliverd via electronic medium. All ads must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail in the ordered pixel dimensions unless otherwise noted.
For advertising offers, send an email with your name,company, website, country and advert or sponsored post you want to appear on our website to omodjk(at)gmail(dot)com
Normally, we should respond within 48 hours.