The Doha Debate: WikiLeaks

I will publish some write-ups over the next few days on my blog which are non-football related but part of my experiences while in Qatar for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.


Finally I went to something which had nothing to do with the Asian Cup football while in Doha as I was asked by DW radio/online to do some non-football stories once in a while.

I have seen the Doha Debate on television a number of times and when I read on Monday, January 24, morning that a Doha Debate about WikiLeaks would take place that evening I tried to find out where in the city the debate would take place and if one could just go there to attend. After fellow journalists informed me that that was possible, I and two colleagues made our way to the Qatar Foundation at Education City.

We reached the venue on time and the organisers where very helpful to accommodate us in the media block to follow the debate, but due to our seating we had no chance to actively take part in the debate. But still it was interesting to see how such a show is produced and follow the often heated debate.


The panel was chaired by seasoned journalist Tim Sebastian along with four panellists, two in favour and two against the motion. Speaking in favour of the motion were Sir Richard Dalton, former British Ambassador to Iran, and Carne Ross, who resigned from the British Foreign Office over Iraq; while former Canadian diplomat Scott Gilmore and Carl W. Ford, a former intelligence chief at the State Department, opposed the motion.

The highly-charged debate was held only weeks after the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks published confidential US diplomatic cables, exposing official corruption in several Middle Eastern states and a yawning gap between the private and public positions of Arab rulers on Iran. It could be a potential trigger for further unrest in the region.

Panellists clashed frequently over the rights and wrongs of leaking secret State Department cables with the audience included in the discussions with Tim Sebastian often asking the questioner if he or she thought they got an appropriate answer. And from the reactions it was clearly visible that the house would be in support of the motion.

A teenager won instant applause when he said: "I would rather live in a world where I am told the truth than in a world where I am told lies". Another female student from Qatar asked: "Is it really that wrong to know the truth? "

And a counter argument was made that there are facts which the public just should not know. Governments are representatives of the people and they act on their behalf.

In the end an audience of mostly Arab and Muslim students supported the motion: 'This House believes the world is better off with Wikileaks', by a surprisingly clear margin of 74 to 26 percent.


It surprised me that the topic of Palestine and Al Jazeera networks releasing secret documents only the day earlier did not come up for discussions. I asked afterwards if the audience had been asked not to go into the topic, but it was answered with a no.

After the recording we got to know some interesting facts from the shows producers. Amongst other things that the Qatar Foundation itself produces the Doha Debates, the program reaches up to 400 Million viewers around the world and the debates do touch issues which are controversial in the Arab and Muslim world.


The Doha Debate will be shown on BBC World Service Television over the weekend of February 5/6 and on a number of other television stations around the world.