Egypt, UAE, Bahrain media councils praise Saudi efforts to combat beoutQ piracy

DUBAI — Egypt’s Supreme Council for Media Regulation, the UAE's National Media Council and Bahrain's Information Affairs Authority issued separate statements reaffirming and supporting Saudi Arabia's rejection of any piracy or illegal broadcasting of any channel that contradicts the law and regulations of any country.

The media bodies also praised the effective and successive steps taken by Saudi Arabia to combat piracy and protect copyrights.

This comes in light of Qatar’s false allegations that Saudi Arabia is purposely allowing the broadcast of the pirate network beoutQ in the Kingdom, which live streams World Cup matches by hijacking beIN Sports’ coverage.

The organizations also denounced Qatar’s relentless attempts to involve Saudi Arabia in the beoutQ case, stressing that their stance is purely political and a response to the boycott of Doha by the four countries. They added that it is also a cover up for their failure to solve the piracy issue.

They also expressed their understanding why Saudi Arabia blocked beIN Sports channels from broadcasting in the Kingdom, as they are directly linked to the Al Jazeera network, which “promotes terrorism”. They added that beIN Sports continues to involve politics in sports through its commentating.

The media organizations called on all countries to revise the legal status of beIN Sports in light of recent developments and their involving of politics in sports repeatedly, especially during the broadcasting of the World Cup.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Ministry of Media welcomed an announcement made by FIFA on Thursday to engage local counsel to take legal action in the Kingdom to “combat the pirate entity named beoutQ, which continues its illegal piracy of 2018 FIFA World Cup broadcasts.”