Nose-dive/Crash landing/[insert aviation disaster pun here]

This probably has merit as a thread:

As many of you know I was in Dubai for the past year working for the Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya, where I was in charge of the English website. Unfortunately journalists in Dubai and and the Arab media more generally do not enjoy the same freedom of the press as journalists in the U.S. Earlier this month when I refused to compromise my journalistic principles and compromise my credibility, which I have spent the past decade building, I was laid off.

Yesterday I arrived back in Washington after being forced out over an article about Emirates Airlines. The airline is on of the channel's biggest advertisers, and the head of Emirates is a Maktoum (a member of the royal family) and also happens to be the head of the regulatory aviation administration. The day after publishing the article I lost my job, prompting the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders to write about my case (read the press release www.rsf.org/Fired-for-implicating-Emirates.html. I posted the original story on my blogs www.arabisto.com and arab-media.blogspot.com and will be writing more about my experiences in Dubai now that I am out of the country and do not have to worry about being arrested or fined.

I thought this was an important issue of press freedom that I wanted to share with you. In the meantime I'm back in in Washington looking for the next step to take in my career. I hope you are all well and appreciate you taking the time to read this.

Sincerely,

Courtney C. Radsch
Journalist & Media Consultant
http://www.radsch.com