20 days leave for Emarat Al Youm

Emarat Al Youm has been suspended for 20 days for defamation. While the Arabic paper was always edgier than its sister paper, Business 24-7 (the artist formerly known as Emirates Today), this is certainly something of a surprise for a Dubai government-owned publication.

UAE arabic daily Emarat Al-Youm has been suspended for 20 days and its editor-in-chief fined 20,000 dirhams ($5,448) for defamation relating to a 2006 story accusing a stable of giving steroids to horses.

The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal upheld a lower court's previous ruling on the case brought against the newspaper by the owners of Warsan Stables, UAE daily Gulf News reported on Thursday.

The UAE Journalists Association criticised the ban, which it said will damage to the UAE's reputation with international press freedom and human rights advocacy groups.
“Although we do not have the right to object a court ruling, but we reiterate our rejection of banning the newspaper or any other local newspaper from publishing, association Chairman Mohammad Yousuf was quoted as saying.

How do you feel about this? Fair treatment? And, if there are any AMG readers, can you tell us if there have been internal repurcussions?

Vanity fare

It seems the UAE isn't the only country that loves its vanity publishing . Wonder if the Cook County magazine had better or worse spelling and grammar than we get here?

Here Toady, gone tomorrow?

One of DMO's favourite moles has come out of retirement with this nugget:

At the end of the month, Emirates Toady is to be rebranded as a business paper, known as Emirates 24/7.

UPDATE: and it's still crap.

It's Toady Time

By popular demand, a discussion about the movings and shakings at Dubai's favourite government newspaper, Emirates Today. And the rest of AMG to boot.

Word has it there are BIG shake up plans afoot (Kane) at ET business.

and:

Speaking of so called "freedom of speech", can anyone enlighten us to the where-abouts of Vix and Nannette from Dubai Eye? The Dubai rumor mill is rife with whispers of letters from high up to pull the show and presenters due to certain remarks said on-air.

But before we start, here's a little video that came our way some time back that explains why AMG is the most successful media company in the United Arab Emirates:

Go wild.

The latest copy rules at Emirates Today

From an anonymous submission:

Please avoid using sex and its related words like gay, homosexual, rape and prostitution in headlines.

Do not also use words like trafficking in headlines.

Avoid labourer in headline and body copy. Use words like workers or employees or staff.

Do not use pictures of construction workers.

Superb, challenging journalism indeed.

Who needs an audit?

After loudly proclaiming that Emirates Today would be audited within months of its launch, it seems media guru Abdul Latif has now decided that even internationally-respected BPA is not up to the task (Communicate, June 2007).

"I'm the first to encourage auditing," he tells the magazine, apparently with a straight face.
But, despite being audited, many publications still inflate their circulations, he goes on to claim.
He then, again without a hint of irony, goes on to call for greater "transparency".

Is this just the latest hint that all is not well at the white-hot spearhead of the media revolution? Rumour has it Matthew Johnson has quit Dubai Eye, AMG seem to have been snubbed by Vogue, and Emirates Today consistently plumbs new depths. Could it be that, having damaged but failed to destroy 7days, Latif is now trying to discredit anyone with an audit?

Or does he have a point. Do audited titles manage to cheat the system?

Hot off the cattywalk?

The editorial staff at Emirates Today seems to have really got its Agent Provocateur knickers in a twist over the comments of Conde Nast chairman Jonathan Newhouse, who rejected requests to licence its title Vogue to an unnamed "Middle East media company", which proposed an Arabic version.

The horror and revulsion positively drips off the page.. but on closer examination, does Newhouse have a point? After all, he claims that there was an element in the Middle East that rejects freedom of expression, equality for women and expression of sexuality, and that he didn't want to risk provoking a negative, even violent reaction.

The comments are spot on, and factually correct. All of those points do exist in the Middle East, whether we like it or not. Emirates Today's inflammatory headline ("VOGUE CHAIRMAN SAYS "NO" TO MUSLIMS") is misrepresentative and over the top.

Could it be a case of sour grapes and that the paper's owner, AMG, was the unsuccessful applicant for the franchise? Somehow, I can't see any of the other publishing houses leaking Newhouse's emails to ET.

Forum Bore 'em

This came from an anonymous submission:

"Poor Abdullatif Al Sayegh went down like a lead balloon at the Innovation Forum a couple of days ago. The moderator, BBC's Nima Abu Wardeh, interrupted him twice while he rambled on endlessly about Arab Media Group. After sharply ordering him to stay on topic, she then ordered him back to his seat.

"But it didn't stop there for Dubai's media chief. The first question from the audience was aimed at Al Sayegh, with the delegate asking why his presentation was not relevant to innovation or the business forum. Al Sayegh started blustering about how many ideas AMG has. Nima interrupted him twice to demand he provide an actual example of what these ideas actually were. He cited Shoof TV.

"The whole excruciating performance made David Brent look like Bill Clinton."