Persian Gulf naming dispute Strait of Hormuz as "Basora Fretum" (Strait of Basra). Among all this confusion, the old name gradually reasserted itself in the 17th century, but Turkey still uses the name "Gulf of Basra" in Turkish today. Following British attempts to control the seaway in the late 1830s, the "Times Journal", published in London in 1840, referred to the Persian Gulf as the "Britain Sea", but this name was never used in any other context. The matter remains very contentious as the competing naming conventions are supported by certain governments in internal literature, but also in dealings with other states and international
Arab states of the Persian Gulf used to refer to the inhabitants of Eastern Arabia. Historically, "Khaleeji" meant descendants of Ichthyophagi, the coast-dwelling "fish eaters". Geographically, the Arabic-speaking is solely Eastern Arabia. Press in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf have varying degrees of freedom with Kuwait topping the league with a lively press that enjoys considerably more freedom than its Persian Gulf counterparts according to Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders. Both organizations rank Kuwait's press as the most free of all Arab states of the Persian Gulf and, in fact, rank amongst the top three most free press in the Arab world. Qatar