Qatar Media City: Gulf Nation’s Growing Media Power Explained

A part­ner­ship between Qatar’s Media City project and Ger­man news agen­cies has drawn crit­i­cism from experts con­cerned about influ­ence oper­a­tions. On August 27, 2025, WELT report­ed that Germany’s main news agency DPA signed a coop­er­a­tion agree­ment with Qatar’s “Media City” project in April, with SPD politi­cian Sawsan Chebli report­ed­ly serv­ing as senior advi­sor while crit­ics warn the ini­tia­tive serves to improve Qatar’s image and influ­ence glob­al polit­i­cal debates. The arti­cle begins:

Peter Krop­sch, man­ag­ing direc­tor of Germany’s lead­ing news agency dpa, could not bring him­self to smile. Beside him stood a mem­ber of the Qatari roy­al fam­i­ly, on the oth­er side Jas­sim Mohamed al-Khori, cur­rent CEO of “Media City Qatar,” a pres­tige project of the Gulf monar­chy. It was April, and dpa had just signed a coop­er­a­tion agree­ment with “Media City,” a mix of office com­plex and Free Trade Zone for media from around the world. In a state­ment at the time, it was said that dpa aimed to estab­lish a “region­al edi­to­r­i­al hub” in Doha. “This part­ner­ship strength­ens Qatar’s role as a lead­ing media plat­form and improves news cov­er­age across the entire region.” Per­haps Krop­sch already sus­pect­ed that not every­one would judge the deal benev­o­lent­ly. Crit­ics see “Media City”—where, in addi­tion to dpa, broad­cast­ers like CNN and Euronews are also plan­ning to open offices—as part of a Qatari influ­ence strat­e­gy. [Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man orig­i­nal using Google.]

Read more: https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/plus68a865018c33b226bcae45ce/Die-arabische-Medienmacht-und-ihre-deutschen-Unterstuetzer.html

Key Points

• The arti­cle high­lights Qatar’s strate­gic piv­ot from ener­gy wealth to media diplo­ma­cy, lever­ag­ing part­ner­ships with dpa, CNN, and Euronews to cement Doha as a hub for inter­na­tion­al jour­nal­ism and cross-bor­der news production.

• Observers see the ini­tia­tive not as a neu­tral expan­sion of jour­nal­is­tic capac­i­ty, but as a cal­cu­lat­ed effort to laun­der Qatar’s glob­al image, man­age media nar­ra­tives, and exert behind-the-scenes influ­ence over polit­i­cal debates in tar­get coun­tries. Crit­ics accuse the coun­try of poten­tial­ly erod­ing inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism in part­ner coun­tries and nor­mal­iz­ing prac­tices that under­mine demo­c­ra­t­ic dis­course and press free­dom on a glob­al scale.

• While “Media City” promis­es an “ethics code” and denies cen­sor­ship, experts point out that Qatar strict­ly con­trols domes­tic media and employs a dual strategy—allying with rep­utable inter­na­tion­al brands while sup­port­ing ide­o­log­i­cal­ly aligned out­lets that ampli­fy state inter­ests abroad.

• Ger­man SPD politi­cian Sawsan Chebli serves as Senior Advi­sor to the chair­man and board of Doha Media City, a role con­firmed by her May 2025 appoint­ment to the NGO’s board; her close rela­tion­ship with Qatar has been evi­dent in recent years through repeat­ed pub­lic appear­ances and affiliations.

How Qatar Deploys Multidimensional Influence

Qatar lever­ages a unique blend of aca­d­e­m­ic part­ner­ships, media influ­ence oper­a­tions, and lob­by­ing net­works to expand its foot­print in the US and glob­al­ly, with US cam­pus­es serv­ing as crit­i­cal nodes in its soft pow­er appa­ra­tus. The Qatar Foun­da­tion has fund­ed US uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus­es for decades—including George­town, Texas A&M, North­west­ern, and Cornell—channeling over $6 bil­lion into Amer­i­can high­er edu­ca­tion, rais­ing con­cerns about cur­ric­u­lar influ­ence and aca­d­e­m­ic auton­o­my. These invest­ments, while offi­cial­ly framed as cul­tur­al and aca­d­e­m­ic exchange, have sparked debate over the poten­tial for for­eign pol­i­cy pri­or­i­ties to shape research agen­das and cam­pus cul­ture, espe­cial­ly on Mid­dle East and Islam-relat­ed topics.

Par­al­lel to its aca­d­e­m­ic engage­ment, FARA fil­ings reveal that since the 2024 US elec­tion, Qatari agents have shift­ed focus from gen­er­al media out­reach to a delib­er­ate cam­paign tar­get­ing con­ser­v­a­tive and right-wing out­lets such as Fox News, the New York Post, and the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er, with sto­ry place­ments, paid inter­views, and con­sult­ing deals designed to shape nar­ra­tives favor­able to Doha, while lob­by­ing net­works extend into elite polit­i­cal cir­cles, includ­ing the recruit­ment of for­mer senior US offi­cials as reg­is­tered agents and undis­closed finan­cial arrange­ments that have drawn con­gres­sion­al scrutiny.

In Europe, Qatar’s influ­ence oper­a­tions have attempt­ed to sway par­lia­men­tary debates and media cov­er­age, often tar­get­ing Qatar’s region­al rivals. Togeth­er, these efforts form a mul­ti-track strat­e­gy: direct aca­d­e­m­ic engage­ment builds long-term insti­tu­tion­al rela­tion­ships and access to future elites; media oper­a­tions shape pub­lic opin­ion and polit­i­cal dis­course; and elite lob­by­ing secures access to decision-makers.

While Qatar and its part­ners empha­size trans­paren­cy and mutu­al ben­e­fit, crit­ics argue that these activ­i­ties risk ide­o­log­i­cal cap­ture, dimin­ished aca­d­e­m­ic free­dom, and the ero­sion of demo­c­ra­t­ic institutions—with US cam­pus­es and media increas­ing­ly viewed as are­nas for geopo­lit­i­cal competition.

Exter­nal References:

• Qatari involve­ment in US high­er edu­ca­tion (Wikipedia)

• Fol­low the Mon­ey: Qatar and the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Fund­ing of US Acad­e­mia (ISGAP)

• How Qatar Spent Bil­lions to Gain Influ­ence in the U.S.

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.