Gulf News - Editor's notes?

Via a comment, did the subeditor forget to remove the government instructions from under the headline?



Original article here, still showing the strange intro text.

"Toning down" Dubai coverage

From the Wall St Journal:

DUBAI-- Gulf News, a newspaper part-owned by a senior government minister in the United Arab Emirates, has told its journalists to avoid using the words "bailout" and "default" when writing about Dubai's debt crisis, according to an internal memo sent to staff and seen by Zawya Dow Jones.

Reporters for the paper, the largest English-language daily in the U.A.E., were also urged to steer clear of the phrase "debt crisis" and asked to "ensure the following politically correct terminology is used" -- words such as "financial consolidation" and "fiscal support" -- when describing the sheikdom's economic problems and the assistance it has received from Abu Dhabi, according to the note sent Dec. 14.

"This is a style guide," said Francis Matthew, the Dubai-based paper's editor-at-large when asked by Zawya Dow Jones about the memo. "We're trying to restrict people from using financially incorrect terms."

More here

National Paint Job

Thread request:

How about a new topic? The National has shown its true colours with its insipid and benign reporting of the Dubai debt story? It's just another PR lead pamphlet for the UAE gov and about as credible as Em Biz 24/7/... Discuss.

Censorship in crisis

Has your publication been censored over the reporting of the Dubai crisis? And - as PR Week claims - has the PR machine at Dubai Inc failed?

A reader writes...

The original comment is here at 09:06:

Why do journalists think their right to do whatever they want defines democracy? There isn't a democracy in the world that doesn't have some form of censorship.

And guess what? Dubai doesn't say it is a democracy, or has any aspirations to be one. All the so called great democracies are full of corruption and sleaze and sex slaves and poverty and exploitation and self interest and everything that's bad about humanity. But you can say what you want in the local rag newspaper so everything's OK.

Journalists suck. You're all so smug and sure that what you do is so important.

Anyone feel like responding?