Your Highness: We are writing to express our concern about a draft of the United Arab Emirates’ media law, recently approved by the Federal National Council. We urge you to reject the law in its current form, which if passed would negatively impact the state of press freedom in the UAE.
ALGERIA | JORDAN | KUWAIT | MAURITANIA | SAUDI ARABIA | SYRIA | TURKEY| UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ALGERIA • In September, the Supreme Court overturned the defamation convictions of Editor-in-Chief Omar Belhouchet and columnist Chawki Amari of the Algiers-based independent daily El Watan, the newspaper’s lawyer, Zoubeir Soudani, told CPJ. The high court ordered a…
Dear Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, We are greatly disturbed by your government’s decision on Friday to stop satellite re-transmission of GEO TV and ARY One World Television through the Dubai Media City. The fact that the stations remain off the air five days after the decision undermines the stated aim of the United Arab Emirates “to transform Dubai into a knowledge-based society and economy” as described on the Media City Web site.
As democracy falters, Arab press still pushes for freedom By Joel Campagna Across the Middle East, political reform gained momentum in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Egyptians and Lebanese clamored for democracy; elections in Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, and Saudi…
New York, June 17, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the harassment and brief detention of Bassma al-Jandaly, a reporter with the Dubai-based, English-language daily Gulf News. Immigration officers detained al-Jandaly at Dubai’s international airport as she prepared to board a flight for Athens, Greece, with other journalists on Wednesday, the journalist told CPJ. Al-Jandaly…