Al-Raya: Saudi media war against al-Jazeera

In its yesterday's issue the Qatari daily al- Raya accused Saudi Arabia of running a "hidden war" against the Qatari satellite al-Jazeera TV station.

The paper front- paged an article saying that Saudi Arabia is planning to chase the said channel and minimize its presence in the Arab Gulf states by encouraging all sorts of pressure on it. It noted to a special decision issued by Saudi Arabia in preventing Saudi companies from advertising on it, as well as urging the information ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC to boycott it and dry-up its advertising resources.

The paper considered that this campaign to "destroy al-Jazeera" is due to the fact that it is an advanced media outlet and to break "certain taboos " in the region.

However, the information ministers at the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC with the exception of Qatar had stressed in a statement in conclusion of their 13th meeting which was held last Wednesday in Muscat that they blame al-Jazeera TV over some of its programs of defaming certain leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC).