Northwestern University in Qatar has ended its collaboration with Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera, a University spokesperson confirmed to The Daily.
The media conglomerate recently drew headlines after University President Michael Schill faced hardline questioning about the University’s ties with the media network at the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s hearing in May.
During the hearing, Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) grilled Schill over the University’s agreement with the media group — partly funded by the Qatar government.
Since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the ensuing conflict, Al Jazeera has faced criticism over Qatar’s ties to Hamas.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly asked Qatar to moderate Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war at the risk of inflaming wider conflict in the Middle East at the end of last year.
NU-Q’s former long-standing partnership with the media conglomerate traces back to the campus’s inception in 2008.
In 2013, both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding to conduct joint research and strategic studies projects, training workshops, internships and faculty contributions as well as journalist-exchange programs.
A number of journalism students attending NU-Q had the option to complete their residency programs interning at Al Jazeera.
At the time, the memorandum was signed by H.E. Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed Al-Thani, former director general of Al Jazeera, and Everette Dennis, former dean and CEO of NU-Q.
Al Jazeera “has one of the world’s largest cadre of news professionals,” Dennis said in a news release. “That makes Al Jazeera a place of great interest for anyone who strives to understand the world’s media ecosystem and for Northwestern students and alumni who will go on to work in the media industry.”
NU is one of the biggest beneficiaries of Qatari money in Education City — a Qatar Foundation-funded complex in Doha. The University has received more than $500 million in contracts from Qatar since its first agreement in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Education data.
Following the end of the agreement, University spokesperson Amy Lee wrote to The Daily that NU-Q “will continue to offer journalism students robust opportunities for academic engagement through its deep relationships with many media, strategic communications and other agency partners.”
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