Journalism, media laws and press freedom in the UAE

The following links and explanations should help provide an understanding of the state of journalism, media laws and press freedoms in the UAE:

• I’ve written three articles for Dubai’s Gulf News about impediments to a free press in the United Arab Emirates: Challenges facing press freedom, Civil courts should handle defamation, and UAE journalists need more legal protections.
• At Mideast Posts, you can read my observations about the local press and its coverage of sensitive topics: UAE newspapers and the self-censorship debate, Peninsula journalism attack resonates regionally, Newspapers inconsistent over blogger arrests, and UAE media breaks silence on Emirat’s arrest.
• I’ve also written many posts about the news coverage and other issues in the UAE. See them all here.
• Sam Potter’s “A paralysis of analysis.” Features quotes from Ibrahim Al Abed, director general of the National Media Council, the media regulatory agency in the UAE, defending the highly criticized draft press law. Here’s my post about an interview with Abed in the Gulf News.
• Dana El-Baltaji’s “Emirites Press Law.” Summarizes the draft press law and the concerns of its critics. The country’s ruler never signed the law, so it’s effectively dead. The country still operates under the 1980 Press and Publications Law. The government news agency WAM recently reported that H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s decree that journalists shouldn’t go to jail for doing their job should be considered law.
• Abdulla Rasheed’s “The ceiling of press freedom is falling.” The Abu Dhabi editor of Gulf News complains about government interference. (Abed cited this column as an indication that a free press exists in the UAE.)
• The Open Net Initative’s report on Internet filtering in the UAE. Study from 2009 finds “substantial” political filtering and “pervasive” social censorship.
• Andrew Mill’s “A Vision in the Desert.” Details The National newspaper’s efforts to bring Western-style journalism to the UAE. The founding editor, Martin Newland, left his position as editor of the London Telegraph to take the job but left after about a year. His replacement, Hassan Fattah, was a Mideast reporter for the New York Times before joining The National as a deputy editor. Many observers agree that the paper has become more timid since Newland’s departure for a position with Abu Dhabi Media, the paper’s government-backed owner. Still, I’ve commented frequently on the good journalism at The National and most observers also note the media here have greatly improved over the past five years.

Please send any me any additional links or ask me any questions. Send email to mattjduffy – at – gmail.com.

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2 comments

• 

  hng on 28 September 2010

  Regarding the last bullet point, I’m more interested in YOUR own view.
• 

  sam on 18 January 2012

  As you note the media plays a massive role in sahping the perceptions of the public in any gvien society. When I read the National, the perception I get is clear. The UAE is full of criminals that undertake all sorts of terrible acts. “Western” style journalism is based around trying to make profit, not an honest reflection reality. It is sensationalist, intrusive and in setting an agenda “offering a more western style journalism” forfeits any possibility of providing a balanced approach based on fact. Facts don’t sell, emotional rubbish does. I agree the National is bringing the Western approach to media to the UAE- and looking at the brilliant job they do in the West- I have to say that is rather dissapointing. Western journalists prey on the weak minded, the sick and the vulnerable all in the name of making money. I can hear the argument about Arabic media but surely there is something that is far more moral and newsworthy than articles eeking a Western approach to news.

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