Social media users claim the cafe was named after a Saudi-owned, UAE-based outlet which published fake “leaked” documents that alleged to showed payments to prominent Al Jazeera staff.
Images of a newly opened cafe called “Depends” emerged across social media platforms, with many making links between the brand name and logo with a fake news report that was published by a Saudi-owned, UAE-based outlet earlier this year.
Depends Cafe, which recently popped up in the Qatari capital, mimics the same handwritten word “depends” that appeared on a forged document shared by Al Arabiya that claimed to expose payments made to Al Jazeera anchors.
The false documents leaked earlier this year contained alleged rewards worth hundreds of dollars from the Amiri Diwan to eight different anchors and journalists at Al Jazeera, with a fake signature under the name “Depends”.
Pictures of the cafe, which is only in its soft opening phase, show that its logo has the exact same signature on the document, which many people described as a form of mockery.
Read also: Saudi’s Al Arabiya to be tried in UK court over ‘false’ Qatar Airways video
When the document was released by Al Arabiya in February, the people whose names were on the list dismissed it by pointing out all the factual errors.
Among them was Wajd Waqfi, a senior correspondent at Al jazeera Arabic, who is based in Washington, D.C.
The document stated that the monetary award was transferred to Al Jazeera’s office in Jordan and gave Waqfi a completely different middle name, “Ali”.
“Let’s put aside your lack of mathematical knowledge and the fact that I’m in the US and never worked a day at the Jordan office…who exactly is Ali? Where did you get that Ali from. My name does not have an Ali in it,” she said on Twitter.
Aside from the wrong names on the list, the document did not have the name of the general manager who signed it.
The word “depends” was also reportedly placed on the document instead of “approved”.
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