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?

Dubai bans the Sunday Times

The Sunday Times has been pulped in the UAE, but honestly is anyone surprised?

DUBAI -- The Sunday London Times newspaper was removed by authorities from shelves in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday amid intensive reporting of Dubai's debt problems, an executive at the paper said.

The National Media Council ordered the paper blocked by distributors without providing a reason, an executive at the paper in Dubai told Zawya Dow Jones.

The Sunday Times edition available in the U.A.E. on Nov. 29 featured a double-page spread graphic illustrating Dubai's ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum sinking in a sea of debt. The Times wasn't given a reason for the block, or a timeframe when it will be lifted, the executive said.

A government official in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the U.A.E., said that the picture of Sheik Mohammed, which accompanied a story entitled: The sinking of Dubai's dream, was "offensive."

Under the U.A.E.'s media code, publications are prohibited from criticizing the sheikdom's rulers. Local media and government officials have criticized international press coverage of Dubai's debt crisis. Markets around the world fell last week after the government requested a debt standstill for one of its biggest conglomerates.

Earlier this month Dubai's Sheik Mohammed told reporters gathered at an investment conference in the city to "shut up" and stop criticizing the emirate and its crucial relationship with Abu Dhabi.

Dubai is struggling to deal with it debts estimated to exceed $80 billion.

The Sunday Times is part of News International, a unit of News Corp., owner of Dow Jones & Co. The Times and The Sunday Times are published in the U.A.E. through a local partner SAB Media.

If anyone has a scan or screenshot of the "offensive" graphic, we'd love a copy.

Dubai Biscuit Breakfast

Thread request:

We all know that radio here is bland and PC but it plumbed to new depths this morning when most of the Business Breakfast on Dubai Eye was devoted to a biscuit tasting competion. I was in the car listening with a business visitor to Dubai Air Show who asked if this programme was a joke because it gave completely the wrong impression of Dubai as a business centre. We are living in a city that is trying to climb out of a recesssion and if this is the best the two purile and amateurish presenters (who insist on telling you their names every five minutes) can serve up then no wonder most new business is moving to Abu Dhabi where thankfully you cannot pick up the signal for Dubai Eye.

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

No Cannes do

Thread submission:

This year's Middle East Film Festival presented a superb slate of movies, documentaries and shorts, so why does it continue to be the dullest event in the UAE's cultural calendar? Poor branding, weak marketing and worse PR, how does an event with so much money get it so very wrong?

Wam Bam Al-Bayan

Via a reader, does anyone have any more info on this:

WAM Dubai, Sep. 7, 2009 (WAM) -- The ownership of Al-Bayan Press, Publishing and Printing Establishment is to shift to Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI). H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has issued a decree ordering the transfer of the ownership of the Dubai-based establishment with effect from the date of issuance of the decree.

The decree calls for the transfer of all assets, properties, commitments and rights of Al-Bayan to the DMI and so shall Al-Bayan's staff and workers to boost media work and unify the efforts of media practice for better services to the general public. The decree which takes effect from the date of its issuance is to be published in the official gazette.

With the transfer of Al-Bayan ownership, the DMI, which already has under its umbrella five TV channels, has further expanded to include Al-Bayan, which has become by virtue of the new decree an integral part of the DMI family, which includes Dubai TV, Sama Dubai, Dubai One, Dubai Sports Channel and Dubai Racing.

For men

It seems the Dubai men's magazine market is about to explode - GQ and Esquire, anyone? But what's to say new titles - even if international brands - will do better in this market than any previous attempts? Will the ad spend ever be big enough to support new men's glossies?