The former Editor-at-Large of Doha News has spoken out on why the website was blocked by Qatari authorities last year, a move that eventually led to the sale of the news site and its staff walking away.

“But while Qatar is busy patting itself on the back for bringing independent, Arab-led global news to the world, it is also busy suppressing similar voices at home,” Victoria Scott wrote in a blog post on her personal website.

She said that Doha News had been founded in 2009 on the principles of truth and honesty, and had gained a name for itself by publishing news and opinion pieces deemed controversial in the Gulf state.

“Doha News continued to stand for these principles even after Qatar’s government decided to block access to the site without warning last December," Scott wrote.

After traffic to the news site took a hit, it was sold to a foreign news media company, but the staff decided to leave the site, Scott wrote.

“We decided to walk away after the company expressed a desire to enforce its own – undisclosed – editorial values on existing staff."

Scott then commented on the “bleak future” of the news site.

“Since the sale, Doha News has published only a handful of articles, and sent out only a few tweets. The new owners do not appear to have hired new journalists, and for now at least, the future of the site seems bleak.

“This is incredibly depressing, not only for the owners and staff of Doha News, who have worked tirelessly and at times at great personal risk for the cause of free media in Qatar, but also for Qatar’s residents.

“They now have only a steady diet of propaganda, advertising and rumor with which to discern what is actually going on in the country they live in,” Scott added.