The Official Dima Blog

I got this call yesterday from my friend and colleague in Al Ittihad newspaper, who appologised for the “unbalanced” story that was published with his by-line on the issue of shutting Al Emarat Al Youm by fedral court order.

His “unbalanced” story, would have been balanced had the editor not removed half of the story where some defenders of Emarat Al Youm criticized the court order. “I filed the story at the request of the editor-in-chief, according to my understanding of a proper report. I even had Mohammad Yousuf, the president of the UAE Journalists’ Association, quoted with disapproval of the decision”, he said.

ُApparently, that part of the story was removed.

Emarat Al Youm faced a lawsuit back in 2007 because of a report accusing Warsan Stables of injecting their horses with steroids to win races. 

The daily tabloid-size newspaper lost in primary court and appealed in federal high court. According to the United Arab Emirates laws the decisions of the federal court are final, unless exempted by the president. 

The published story quoted the accusor, director of Warsan Stables, who said the court decision was a victory, and that it proved that Emarat Al Youm. 

The journalist who was concerned about the professionalism of what was published said he wouldn’t have put his name on the story, had he known that it was going to be twisted. He even wished his appology would be communicated to Sami Al Riyami, Editor-in-Chief of Emarat Al Youm .

At Emarat Al Youm, reporters described the report as biased. Nothing was communicated to the reporters about the court order and they were still working as usual. Two days later, the newspaper is still being published. 

The journalist from Al Ittihad sounded disappointed, despite being aware of the fact that local newspapers do not always tend to appreciate ethical and professional standards of reporting. 

Gulf News on the other hand, did quote Mohammad Yousuf, and wrote a follow up story today. 

That said, I do nor wish to defend any of the parties involved, simply because I do not know all the facts. Neither do I intend to say that UAE newspapers are biased, who isn’t! 

Aside from political considerations, the economic crisis, is not helping newspapers become any more professional, being threatened by losing the few advertisers that still have some advertising budget to spend. 

A one-year advertising contract with a government department in Dubai, has been placing a lot of strains on journalists at Emirates Business 24-7, to avoid negative reporting. 

An earlier complaint voiced by Gulf News, pointed at PR agencies who threatened to make their clients terminate their advertising contract, should they not publish their stories.