Saudi Arabia-led bloc asks Qatar to shut Al Jazeera, close a Turkish army base and scale down Iran ties within 10 days.
Why do the Saudis want Al-Jazeera to be shut down?
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because anything openly investigatory is battled tooth and nail ( and sword ) by any typical arab or pseudo-arab immunity system to freedom of speech, just another figure of unquestionable resistence to fair opposition and the spirit of bilateral or multilateral streaming of thoughts.– Abr001amCommented Jun 26, 2017 at 11:56
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1 Answer
Basically, it's because Al Jazeera has more freedom in their reporting than other Saudi Arabian networks and the network doesn't always portray other Arab nations in a good light. As Al Jazeera has become the most popular news channel in the Arab world, Arab nations has always wanted to close it and it is already blocked in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Also, it has also faced backlash in the past and Arab governments have accused it of supporting Islamists.
The Saudis recalled their ambassador from Doha in 2002 after the network aired a panel discussion featuring dissidents from the kingdom. Other countries have periodically expelled Al Jazeera journalists and tried to block its satellite signal; Egypt arrested three staffers in 2013 on sham charges of reporting false news and terrorism, and held them in custody for more than a year. But the current crisis—the demand for its complete closure—is unprecedented.
(emphasis mine)
This Washington Post article explains this in greater detail.
For years, the call-in show was one of the network’s most popular, reaching tens of millions. Viewers would call in and pose their faith questions to Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric and a spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. People would ask all kinds of things: Is it all right to smoke during Ramadan? Does a female Palestinian woman have to wear a hijab while carrying out a suicide bombing?
Before Al Jazeera, a show like this would have been unusual in the Arab world, where media is tightly controlled. But the Qatari-owned network has a mandate to produce ambitious journalism on a wide range of subjects (some taboo). It offers, too, a broader range of opinions than most Arab media.
These qualities have made it the most popular network in the Middle East. It’s also attracted a lot of enemies. Rulers in places such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt resent the station’s broad reach and its willingness to rile up opposition. They don’t like its Islamist bent, and they’re angry that their populations are exposed to reporting critical of their regimes (and supportive of the Qatari agenda).
(emphasis mine)
