Doha, Qatar: Al Jazeera Media Network strongly denounces YouTube’s submission to the Israeli authorities’ decision to ban the broadcast of its channels on the platform and the blocking of its websites in Israel.
The Network emphasises that this measure represents a flagrant violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to seek, receive, and impart information freely.
The Network expresses its deep concern over YouTube's response to these censorial dictates, which constitutes a failure to adhere to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Such principles mandate that global tech companies ensure freedom of expression and resist government pressures that lead to the withholding of the truth and the silencing of independent journalism.
The banning of Al Jazeera’s digital platforms and websites on weak security grounds sends a dangerous signal that major technology companies can be co-opted as instruments of regimes hostile to freedom.
This further entrenches a policy of double standards in the management of digital content in conflict zones and weakens the governance of the global public sphere. The Network stresses that this escalation is part of a broader and systematic pattern of Israeli violations, including the killing and detention of its journalists and the closure of its offices in the occupied territories, aimed at suppressing the truth.
Al Jazeera Media Network calls on YouTube and other digital content distribution companies to immediately lift the ban on its channels and to fully uphold their moral and legal responsibilities to the global audience. The Network urges all international bodies concerned with media freedom and human rights organisations to condemn this ban and to demand that Israeli authorities cease targeting journalistic institutions.
Al Jazeera also calls for an international investigation into the ways in which technology platforms submit to censorship, underscoring the need for independent grievance mechanisms that protect media content from political pressure and uphold the rule of law.
Al Jazeera reaffirms its commitment to reporting the full truth and assures its audience that attempts at digital blocking will only strengthen its determination to fulfil its professional mission across all available means and platforms.
The Network also reserves the right to pursue all appropriate legal measures.
