A rival for The National?

According to a commenter:

It seems a new newspaper will soon be launched in Abu Dhabi. It's recruiting reporters - http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1250147
Are you surprised to hear this? Is there a market for more newspapers in the UAE? I thought the ad market was drying up.

The ad points to "the projected launch of a new local daily print publication for Abu Dhabi" by "a successful local publisher (small, well-funded, profitable, keen, entrepreneurial) with a number of print, online and video products".

More interestingly, they seem to be expecting some kind of Armageddon to break out among the seven-star hotels of the world-leading cultural capital of the UAE:

"this is not a job for those who like safety, an easy life, or the support infrastructure of a big organisation."

Screenshot in case it disappears:

Adieu Newland?

The Independent on Sunday has claimed that Martin Newland is stepping down as editor of The National.

Just a year after the launch of The National in Abu Dhabi, rumours swirl that Martin Newland is to step down. The former Daily Telegraph editor set up the English-language paper, recruiting several ex-Telegraph hacks to join him.

Colin Randall and Sue Ryan were among those lured by generous tax-free salaries, the full details of which were memorably leaked on to the internet. My mole says Newland will continue to work for the paper but not as editor. I'm told his replacement will need to be pro the Emirates government and royal family, its proprietors. Newland did not return my calls.

Bearing in mind the National moles have all gone very quiet, is there any chance we can get this confirmed? Was Newland pushed, did he jump, or was he just unwilling to toe the party line any more?

RAK hit and run

From today's Gulf News (extracts below):

An American journalist working for an English daily from Abu Dhabi has run over an Egyptian security guard at the entrance of a university here because the guard denied him access to the campus.

The security guard did not allow entry to the journalist identified as "J." because he did not have an "entrance permission" which is a must for visitors as per the university regulations.

The Egyptian security guard is demanding Dh50,000 in compensation, and the university is demanding to continue with the case against the journalist and his sponsoring organisation.

The sources said that it has been reported that this particular journalist had repeatedly entered the university surreptitiously. He had entered with the university students and without holding any proper permission and this harmed the university's image. The sources said that the journalist had violated the privacy of the university.

Censorship? or more media freedom?

How do you feel about the new UAE media law? Do you feel it protects you and is a step away from censorship, or do you believe it increases your chances of being punished for ruining the country's reputation?

Jail is out (good news); fines are in for damaging the UAE's reputation or economy. Potentially, does this mean fines for any negative stories about the UAE? There has been plenty of coverage on the country's economy, as well as issues of transparency particularly in the real estate sector. A lot of this coverage in recent weeks has been negative. Will this change?

The Brotocols of the Elders of the National

Someone commented this on an earlier thread - here - and it seemed interesting enough for a new topic:

The National also has some kind of pro-Israel agenda. Anyone who has an eye for such editorial policies will notice it.

Starting with labeling "Jerusalem, Israel" on a map (which even Fox News wouldn't do) to calling the boundry between the Israeli occupied Golan and Syria proper the "Israeli-Syrian border".

Aside from that, referring to Jewish colonists in the Golan as "Jewish residents of the Golan" is a really good job at explaining the reality of the occupation to the reader.

The National's pro-Israel editorial policy is being watched closely. Not just by me and others but also by people high up in the government.

Nice to know that the government of Abu Dhabi has come out with an official paper that has Zionist leanings. That' what happens when you bring in an EIC (Newland) that is openly sympathetic to Israel. Read his op-ed in Canada's Macleans magazine. Looks like Abu Dhabi is a asleep.

Thoughts?

Edit: A reader has added this comment, which is also worth discussing.

There seems to be a perception that The National is really hitting Dubai while giving Abu Dhabi more positive coverage. I work at the paper and I have been hearing this from journos and from business /government officials in Dubai. A few days ago I was politely told to piss off because of the paper's position on Dubai.

Other than the paper's obvious pro-Israel stance, is there also an anti-Dubai bias?

D Day for The National

Well chaps, this is the day when the face of journalism in the UAE changes forever ... or so they would have us believe. The National closes its first edition today and hits the streets tomorrow.

Seriously, we hope you prove us wrong and manage where all else have failed before: to launch a UAE paper with consistently high standards and sensible reporting that is neither sensationalist nor smarmy.

Good luck to all of you!

Actual journalists need not apply

There is lame, and then there is Dubai media lame, and then there is the execrable bloody human excrement dregs of lame that appears to be Martin Newland's new newspaper The Nation, as well as his journalistic courage.

The Press Gazette's Axegrinder dug up these nasty little nuggets. You can read the full excerpts here and here, but here is our favourite little piece of turd-dom:

"I can tell you now that every application from a journalist wanting to come and work here who has included in his or her portfolio an "investigative" piece about labourers' living standards has gone straight in the bin. Not because the theme is unworthy – it is and we will do it – but because we are looking for other, more nuanced and mature avenues into the national story."

So essentially if you are a journalist with the least miniscule microbe of talent, experience, news sense and ethics, no need to bother applying to Newland's Abu Dhabi government PR rag. Not unless you first sit UAE Media Course 101: How to prostitute every last shred of your integrity for the sheikh's oily dollar.

The final countdown ...

So the new Abu Dhabi paper is set to launch in March: here's a little DMO call out for any moles in the capital - let us know what's cooking up there?

In staffing news, James Bennett, former Arabian Business helmer, is senior news editor at the new paper, while Alicia Buller (ex Gulf Marketing Review, then features editor at Arabian Business) is coming back from London to be managing editor for Arabian Business.

In fact while we're at it, anyone who'd like to be added to the roster of posters on DMO, just email dubaimediablog at gmail for an invite. And do it under an anonymous name - not from wanker@itp.net or alsayegh@amg.ae - we don't need or want to know who you really are. We don't even know who we are.

TV and the Three Big Ds

I'm sick of papers, let's turn to TV. Here's something interesting, and I'll quote the whole thing for those too lazy "time poor" to click:

CNN ups presence in United Arab Emirates
Tuesday, December 11 2007, 10:52 GMT
By James Welsh, International Editor

CNN is to open a bureau with full broadcast and production facilities in Abu Dhabi, it was confirmed today.

The Abu Dhabi production base is part of an expansion of the network's newsgathering facilities in the United Arab Emirates. It will support current CNN bureaux in Baghdad, Beirut, Cario and Jerusalem and will complement CNN's existing base in Dubai.

"This is a major step forward for CNN as we ramp up our newsgathering capabilities around the world," said Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International. "Besides, the United Arab Emirates is the perfect location for an operation of this kind both editorially and logistically. This announcement comes quickly on the heels of the details we recently released about additional resources in India, Korea and Japan, and in the coming weeks, we will announce new editorial operations in Africa and parts of Europe."

Wilf Dinnick, currently a correspondent stationed in the Middle East for ABC News, will join CNN and be based in Abu Dhabi. Samson Desta, formerly a supervising editor on CNN's International Desk in Atlanta, has been named bureau chief.

Who'd have thought it would be Dhabi that got the bureau, not Dubai? The shift has started. Can we expect to see Dhabi and Doha leading the media race in the future, with oil-poor Dubai trailing behind?

For all the jaded journos

Due to popular demand, here's a thread on the new Abu Dhabi newspaper:

Newland seeks 'jaded' journos for Arab paper launch

24 August 2007
By Patrick Smith

Former Daily Telegraph editor Martin Newland is set to launch a new national newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, creating jobs for 200 journalists from around the world.

"This area is absolutely exploding with potential – in many ways running too fast with infrastructure having to catch up. The paper is aimed at anyone at the high end, so you're looking at broadsheet quality, people earning over £100,000 who speak English. In this place, that's the Indian middle classes, the Anglosphere ex-pats and Emiratis, who speak it fluently."

The paper currently has no title or a launch date more concrete than "months, not years away", but Newland stressed its future is "assured" by significant investment from the investment wing of the Abu Dhabi government.

So what's the reckoning? A proper paper or an "Abu Dhabi Today" government promotional rag? And is Newland coming over all guns blazing a la Frank Kane or does he have some clue that this is a region where a newspaper nearly gets shut down because it takes a story from AFP rather than WAM or reprints a relatively innocuous article from the Telegraph?