Demonstrators plan to picket the Johannesburg office of Al Jazeera, an Arabic-language news network, to protest the firing of a South African journalist allegedly because of his HIV-positive status, AllAfrica.com reports. The journalist, known as “MR” to protect his identity, was working as a senior editor for the Qatari state-owned news channel and maintains that he was never informed by doctors about which medical test were being conducted on him. As of October 2010, MR says he was being considered for a promotion and only learned some time later, after he was sent back to South Africa, that his dismissal was connected to his HIV-positive status. Human rights groups are appealing to Al Jazeera and the emir of Qatar for MR’s reinstatement. Qatari law doesn’t prevent employment discrimination based on HIV status, and Qatar is among the few governments with laws that ban any entry for all HIV-positive foreign nationals—Egypt, Iraq, Singapore and Turkey are also on this list.

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