Riyadh: Saudi businesswoman and economy columnist Nawf Al Ghamdi said it has filed legal complaint against Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV station for publishing a ‘fake news’ report, claiming her detention by Saudi authorities.
The Qatari TV station had published a report claiming that Saudi government arrested Al Ghamdi after publishing a news piece criticising government policies.
“Al Jazeera filed a fake news claiming my detention to discredit the Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia) and impair my personal and professional reputation,” said Al Ghamdi.
The report cited examples of so-called ‘illegal’ arrests, trials and convictions of peaceful dissidents, human rights defenders and activists, and used the instances as evidence of crackdown on human rights and discrimination against women in Saudi Arabia.
“Al Jazeera’s report is totally baseless and is part of Qatar’s brutal media campaign against my country,” said Al Ghamdi.
“It has discredited me personally and professionally, and caused material damage to my business and social life.” she added.
Saudi and Qatari media outlets and social media influencers have traded criticisms since an Arab Quartet cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt accuse Qatar of supporting extremists and giving them a mouthpiece to express their views through its TV channel Al Jazeera.
Since then, the spat spilled into all facets of relations between the two sides, with Saudi Arabia banning Qatari planes from using its airports and airspace, blocking the airing of Al Jazeera and beIN Sports, and barring Qatari institutions from participation in local events.
Most recently, the row extended to sports, when Qatar accused Saudi Arabia of sponsoring a pirate broadcaster (BeoutQ) that aired football matches whose rights are owned by Qatar’s beIN Sports.
Saudi Arabia rejected the allegations and accused Qatar of politicising football.
