Kuwait Times

Published Date: February 03, 2009

DUBAI: Journalists in the United Arab Emirates, a Gulf state that wants to be seen as an example for press freedom in the Arab world, slammed a proposed new media law as a "backward step". The government, which hosts hundreds of foreign media including AFP in specially tailored free zones, insists the bill will provide wider freedom for the local press.

However, Mohammed Yousuf, the head of the UAE journalists association, denied that the new regulatory system will be better than the existing arrangements, in force since 1980. "It did not take our demands into consideration. This is a backward step," he told AFP, days after the draft was approved by the UAE's consultative assembly and sent back to the government for finalisation before the president signs it into law.

Yousuf said the proposals contain too many prohibitions that could cripple freedom of the press, even though the law would restrict punishment to fines and annulment of licences and would scrap jail terms for media offences. The recently-founded Doha Centre for Media Freedom also slammed the draft law. "Several clauses constitute a flagrant violation of international conventions that guarantee freedom of expression," the watchdog said in a statement.

The National Media Council (NMC) - the highest press authority in the oil-rich Gulf state - defended the bill, claiming it frees the press from many existing constraints. "The current law has 16 articles that stipulate penalties ... The draft law stipulates only three cases," NMC director-general Ibrahim Al-Abed said. "These include criticising the head of the state and the rulers of the emirates, publishing misleading news that could harm the national economy and publishing material insulting the traditi
ons and values" of the UAE, he said. "Instead of the current five-year jail sentence for criticising the head of the state, we have replaced it with a fine," he said.

Fines could reportedly reach up to one million dirhams ($272,000). There are 11 main daily newspapers in the UAE, six of them in English and five in Arabic. They all appear to exercise strict self-censorship, avoiding any criticism of the rulers - an approach followed in all Gulf monarchies. The UAE ranked 69th in the press freedom index for 2008 prepared by the Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders. It came third among Arab countries, with Kuwait ranking 61st and Lebanon 66th.

Yousuf denounced the offences for which penalties could be imposed as "vague points ... put there to be used when needed" by the government. Political science professor Abdul Khaliq Abdullah agreed that the terms are "very ambiguous and can be used by the authorities" to exert pressure. Although Abdullah welcomes the abolition of jail punishment, he said that "judicial authorities" should rule on alleged offences. "The new law is ambiguous about naming the authority which decides on press penalties" he sai
d.

Abed said the proposed law "goes farther than media laws in many countries" by protecting journalists against pressure, stating clearly that "it is forbidden to force a journalist to reveal (their) sources of information." The proposed law does not govern the hundreds of media organisations using the country's free zones as bases, as they are subject to special regulations coming directly from the council of ministers.

There are eight free zones across the UAE, four of them in Dubai, which are used by various businesses and including one especially dedicated to the media. "There should not be two different laws in the same country. The free zones should be different only in business terms, like arranging licenses or residency permits, but as far as journalism is concerned, it should be subject to the same law," Yousuf said. - AFP