Censorship Law against Fraud and Deception in Qatar - Assignment Example

Contents 1 Defining the terms 2 1.1 Censorship 2 1.2 Fraud and deception by businesses on Media 2 2. Situation in Qatar 3 3. Comparison to UAE 3 4. Reason 3 5. Recommendations 4 6. Conclusion 4 Bibliography 4 Abstract: This report looks at the meaning of the terms such as “Censorship” and “Fraud” in general. It then looks at the censorship laws of Qatar that are focused mainly on protection of government officials as compared to those from other countries. However there has been a progress towards introducing censorship for public interest. It shows how U.A.E. which has had a similar history too is attempting to think beyond protection of government officials and is taking measures to prevent commercial fraud. In the end it reasons out why such laws should be implemented and lists recommendations to improve the law. 1 Defining the terms 1.1 Censorship Censorship takes place when media caters to large masses and for the protection of their interests the government has to control the information broadcasted. It dictates of what is right and wrong politically, religiously, ethically and culturally. Content that is understood to be false or hurtful for the public is prevented from interaction with the masses [Mic97]. There are many levels of implementing censorship. There is a reviewing committee that would pass everything before allowing publication. There is also monopolization of publications, where there is only one producer. Licenses can also be issued to media groups that have signed a contract of following the censorship contract. Under which they take the responsibility of not publicizing information that is censored by the state[Gre90]. 1.2 Fraud and deception by businesses on Media Companies have been caught repetitively using false statements in advertisements of products. Many customers get befooled and have to pay cost for what they didn’t buy. Some of the most common forms of deceptions by businesses are: 1. Being unclear about measurements. When companies change the understood meaning to something else e.g. hardware drives sometimes have less capacity than that mentioned on it 2. They have an oversized packaging to appear huge when it is not. For example supplying a packet of chips filled with mostly air and lesser quantity of chips. 3. Misleading packaging: this is the most common form of deception. There are posters with pictures of big burgers and the original comes is smaller without the salad leaf. 4. When people are encouraged to buy something great from a company when in reality only a little amount of the beneficial ingredient or object is present in the object bought. E.g. in a box of cereal promising vitamins and important diet nutrients has only 1% of the promised nutrient. This is also known as Angel dusting. 5. There are undeclared guarantees. A company may not declare what it will do to provide guarantee and when the objects fails expectations they return very little [Mar84]. 2. Situation in Qatar For any state, all laws made are to protect interest of the public. In Qatar, the government’s goal is to provide freedom to the press, however after every few days, new censorship laws are declared in the name of protection of public interests. In reality, most of the laws have been used to suppress anti-government feelings in the state. The latest censorship limits the information that can be accessed by an individual. It also censors child pornography and laws are made to catch hackers. Whereas pornography is against the state religion, cyber crimes are on a rise. Implementation of these laws seems to be in synch with their motto of public protection. However there are a lot of areas that need to be covered and a lot of censorship laws that need to be relaxed [PET14]. There has not been any literature and discussion on censorship regarding information publicized businesses. Businesses interact directly with the public. Government should protect its public from fraudulent and deceptive advertisements. 3. Comparison to UAE UAE has a similar history as that of Qatar. It is drafting new laws however for protection of consumers and to prevent commercial fraud. There are heavy penalties decided for counterfeiting. A company found guilty of fraud or deception has three years of imprisonment for the owner and a fine of 10,000 Dirhams (USD2, 740). If pharmaceutical and food companies are involved in fraud and deception then there is an even greater fine of 1 million Dirhams (USD274, 000) [Ras13]. 4. Reason Evaluation of past Censorship laws has turned out to be simply a way of protecting government and its officials from media lashings. For example Article 326 gives a penalty of two year imprisonment and 20000 Riyals for being charged at “defaming someone in public through accusing them of doing a mishap necessitating a legal punishment or inflicting their dignity or honor or exposing them to people’s disdain and malice” defamation of an official can result in penalty, however the fraud carried out by companies at advertisement goes unnoticed [Leg11]. 5. Recommendations Censorship should be directed to look out for public interests. An institution should be set up by the government that would test each advertisement and packaging material to avoid any kind of deception or fraud. They should have a checklist of all the possible ways in which public can be harmed. Media groups should be instructed to run ads cleared by these offices. Once this is set up, constant checks should be kept to monitor and control new possible risks. Punishments for every crime should be decided and should be implemented. 6. Conclusion All Middle Eastern countries are found to have strict defamation laws and for that Media is strongly regulated by them reducing the freedom of press [Jil11] . The business censorship laws being developed for consumer protection then justify the censorship as it will be done for the protection of people and not government which has always been the case. Bibliography Mic97: , (Landier, 1997), Gre90: , (Green, 1990), Mar84: , (Marx, 1984), PET14: , (KOVESSY, 2014), Ras13: , (Ardah, 2013), Leg11: , (Legislation, 2011), Jil11: , (York, 2011), Read More