Bahrain's decision to shut down the office of the Qatari news channel Al Jazeera is unfortunate and it is not the first time this channel was booted out of an Arab country.
Al Jazeera, which started in 1996 and broke many barriers and taboos in the Arab world, has regularly seen its offices closed in Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Sometime it is because the channel reports on issues those countries find "offensive". It feels like an increasing number of Arab governments, intolerant of the type of reporting on Al Jazeera, are using the slightest political difference with Doha as a pretext to get rid of the channel's reporters, who often challenge the official version of events.
Despite its progress in many other areas, the Arab world is still intolerant of free media. This must change. Otherwise, we will not be able to address the countless critical problems we have in this region.
