A Grave Situation

I have long been impressed by an American epitaph, apparently engraved on the poor woman’s gravestone. It struck me so much that I can recite it even today:

Here lies the body of Mary Anne Lowder
Who burst whilst drinking a Seidlitz Powder
Laid in this grave to her heavenly rest
She should have waited ‘till it effervesced

It's TRUE. I swear to God.

Well, now I’ve found a better one. Well, Sarah actually found it. But how’s this for your last earthly inscription:

Beneath in the dust,
the mouldy old crust
Of Moll Batchelor late was shoven
Who was skilled in the arts of pyes, custards and tarts
And every device of the oven.
When she’d lived long enough, she made her last puff
A puff by husband much praised
And here she doth lie and makes a dirt pye
In hopes that her crust may be raised.

It is to be hoped that Moll didn’t succumb to one of her own pies. Both inscriptions are perfectly genuine, apparently, and are sourced.

As we’re on the subject of being amused whilst dying, the ‘best epitaph of all time’ award still goes to comedian Spike Milligan, whose gravestone reads, in Irish: Duirt me leat go raibh me breoit

“I told you I was ill.”

The fact that it's my birthday tomorrow has NOT influenced the subject of this post... >;0)

Media Regulation and Freedom in the UAE

Sorry, this is a long post.

There was another scurry of activity in Dubai last night as media gathered for a meeting with HH General Sheikh Mohammad and Sheikh Abdulla Bin Zayed Al Nahan last night. The news of the gathering, which ran big in media here today (with, oddly, the exception of Emirates Today), revolved around further clarifications of the position regarding the rights and responsibilities of media in the UAE. That position was certainly made clearer on the news that the UAE Journalists' Association had put forward a voluntary code of conduct which has been adopted by the leading daily newspapers in the country. That code is given below in full.

Although by no means the entire story or solution, the code is presumably an attempt to move in the direction of a self-regulating media. That attempt comes prior to the publication of the much anticipated new media law, which may well render the code of conduct redundant on many points. In the meantime, there is at least a level of guidance now available for journalists and others working in the UAE media industry.

The below text is a cut and paste of that available at Gulf News' website. I do find it interesting that the focus is consistently not on the rights, roles and credibility of journalism, but on what journalists should not do and how they should not behave or act.

The desire to reconcile a belief in media freedom and a capable media together with attitudes and requirements of a conservative, albeit highly tolerant, society in a region where media freedom is at best patchy is not an easy thing to manage. It is a process I have seen developing for something like 20 years now and it's like watching Eensy Weensy Spider...


The Code of Ethics

The undersigned, board members of the Journalists Association and editors in chief of newspapers and publications, and out of belief in our responsibility towards the public and society, and the basis of journalism, on top of which is commitment to the truth and principles of freedom, justice, values, ethics and respect of law, approve the “Journalism Code of Ethics" and undertake to:

1. Respect the truth and the right of the public to have access to the true and accurate information.
2. While performing his duty, the journalist is demanded to commit himself at all times to the principles of freedom and integrity in gathering and publishing stories. He should also voice fair and neutral comments and criticism.
3. A journalist must only publish facts from sources known to him, and must not hide any basic and important information, forge facts of falsify documents.
4. He should use only legitimate means to obtain information, photos and documents from original sources.
5. Publishing news and information of pictures must be examined carefully for accuracy, and their true meaning must not be altered by editing, title or photo comment. All documents must be edited accurately, and any uncertified reports, rumours or speculations must be reported as such. If re-edited or reproduced material was used as a symbolic picture, it should be made clear through the comment that it is not a documentary picture.
6. Journalists undertake to rectify any published information that proved to be wrong and harmful to others.
7. There should be no compromise in credibility.
8. Respecting privacy is a main principle in the profession and journalists should respect the privacy of individuals and not expose it by publishing any thing without the consent of those individuals. If personal conduct over crosses with public interest, such conduct may be covered without violating the personal rights of uninvolved individuals.
9. In regards to the news source, the code and charter stress that Professionalism and confidentiality should be strictly observed if the source demands anonymity. The journalist has every right to present evidence or expose their source without the source’s consent.
10. Journalists should not seek to provoke or inflame public feelings by any means or use means of excitement and deception or dishonest reporting. They should not use media organs for purpose of libel or slandering.
11. The edited publications should not be influenced by personal interests or businesses with a third party. Publishers and editors-in-chief must turn down any such attempts, and draw a clear line between reported stories and commercial articles or publications.
12. Journalists should be very vigilant to traps of discrimination and avoid involving themselves by any means in any stories hinting to discrimination of race, sex, language, faith or national and social backgrounds.
13. They must be aware that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty, thus names and photos of suspects should not be published until a final verdict is issued.
14. In crimes and issues dealing with children, names and photos should not be published.
15. Journalists must be very careful in their personal relationships with news sources so as these bonds can not impact the Partiality.
16. The media should refrain from publishing photos of brutal violence and respect the feeling of the public especially children.
17. Journalists are urged to avoid using offending and obscene language in their reports.
18. Islam is a basic and important component of UAE culture, values and traditions, and the respect of divine religions and traditions and values of nations takes centre stage at the mandatory code of ethics of the media and should not be offended or desecrated by any forms.
19. Human rights should also be respected and valued and should not be abused by the media under any pretext.
20. Plagiarism, ill-intention interpretation, libel, slandering, censure, defamation, allegation and accepting bribery to publish or hide information are all dangerous professional violations.
21. When using facts published by competitors, journalists must give credit to the competitor.
22. Competing for news, pictures and information is a right, provided practicing such competition is honest and clear and does not hinder the work of colleagues in competing publications.
23. A journalist has to do his best not to become part of a story, and to cover news not make them. While gathering information, a journalist may not present himself as anything other than a journalist.
24. Coverage of medical cases must not be sensational, as this can lead to spreading fear or unrealistic hope among readers. Publishing the first stage of results of researches and medical achievements must not be portrayed as final and undisputed.
25. Journalists must not acquire information or pictures through harassment, temptation or violence.
26. Accepting valuable cash and kind gifts may cause a journalist to be biased in his coverage and is considered breach of the code. This does not apply to souvenir gifts given to the public.

UAE Facebook Ban Shock Horror Rubbish

Today’s Khaleej Times decorated its front page with a breathless little story about a ban on Facebook: ‘Facebook Users Face Orkut Fears’ the headline trumpets. Well, not really trumpets. More like bugles, a sort of reedy, tinny, parping sound.

The story is one of those that should have been strangled at birth. There have been connectivity issues over the past few days from the UAE, likely a router or two taken out over in the US and a number of links, and therefore a number of sites, have consequently been up and down and on and off.

So Facebook users in the UAE have been rushing off to their favourite place and finding the site’s just timing out on them. And, according to KT, they’ve been scared that this means Facebook, as Orkut was before it, has been banned for being a ‘dating site’.

It is perhaps worth mentioning that the whole Web 2.0 adoption thing in the UAE is being slightly held back by the fact that many cool Twitter-like things have been banned because they encourage ‘dating’.

When the UAE content filter decides that something’s just too naughty or interesting to be looked at by our delicate, tender little eyes, the site gets blocked and you get the above, quite distinctive, message on your screen. The lack of such a message (sites affected over the past couple of days have just been timing out. I’ve personally been having huge issues with Blogger, Google and Yahoo at various times) is something that the Facebook users fearing a ban have presumably been failing to think through.

Contacting the telco (Etisalat) and the regulator, KT’s reporter was told by both that there was no ban in place and that there had been connectivity issues. The regulator told KT that readers having access issues could use the Du network instead, which did rather make me chuckle given the user feedback we’ve been seeing here on FPS. Most people would conclude at that stage that they had a non story on their hands, rather than a front page blast as the story really boils down to ‘Stupid People Find Nothing is Happening’.

Or, perhaps, if you wanted to run with it and be sensible: ‘UAE Internet Failures Irk Users’.

Salik Reprised

Pretty much every Dubai blog has posted loads of grumpy stuff about Salik, the glorious answer to Dubai traffic blues, this one being no exception. I've desisted for some time now, precisely because pretty much anything useful or interesting that could be said had been said.

But I couldn't resist this.

This is a photograph of the Garhoud Road just before you get to Wafi, taken during 'home time' this week. Don't worry, I wasn't taking a photograph whilst moving. The traffic had just started a jerk forwards for a few yards before it stopped again. The left hand lane was crawling in a start/stop action.

See? Salik IS working!!!

"Yaa Boo Sucks to You!" - Bush Gets Tough

According to reports from Voice of America, Iran's parliament has passed a resolution calling on the government to designate the United States Army and Central Intelligence Agency as "terrorist organizations."

This information comes to me courtesy of pal and deliciously manic pixie Sara Refai, who occasionally surfs the Internet looking for odd things, like a sort of collector of informational fag butts. I mean fag butts in the British rather than American sense, obviously.

The Iranian resolution, according to VoA, was approved Saturday by 215 lawmakers in Iran's 290-seat parliament, which is dominated by conservatives. The resolution says the U.S. Army and CIA should be considered terrorists because they provide support to Israel in its operations against Palestinian and Lebanese militants. The move is in retaliation for the the Bush administration branding the Iranians terrorists. The administration apparently said in August it is considering designating all or part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.

So the US calls Iran terrorists and Iran calls the US terrorists and that's supposed to take us forwards. Am I the only person in the world, I wonder, who worries that the people with their hands on those nasty little red buttons appear to think they're still on the playground?

Gross Stupidity

144 posts by me. Gross stupidity indeed...

Poetic Justice

I do hope you remember the story of Jordanian expatriate blogger Husain (Who-Sane) and his father, who was so appallingly treated in an Amman hospital that he is still recovering over a month later.

Husain's blog post on the affair started a hue and cry that made it to many other blogs and so to the daily newspapers and eventually resulted in such significant word of mouth and consequent broad public awareness of the tragic plight of his father and his ill-treatment at the hands of the hospital's staff that the King himself became involved.

Well, the director of the hospital has now been sacked.

Which is by no means the end of the story, but probably an appropriate stepping point.

Clarity

I suppose I’m going to have to word this one very carefully.

The head of Dubai police is quoted extensively today in Gulf News ‘warning against misinterpretation of the instructions concerning banning of detention of journalists working in the country’. The language, I hasten to add, is GN’s, not mine.

Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim is quoted by GN: ‘…jounalists who do not do their job according to the norms of their profession will not be immune from punishment as per the law. And those found abusing the immunity will not be tolerated.’

Gulf News also reports Tamim as saying that journalists who undermine others and distribute baseless accusations against people and slander their reputation without the support of substantial evidence will be punished in accordance with the law.

Just in case someone out there finds this confusing, the piece ends with the following quote from the good general: ‘The immunity against imprisonment is limited to journalists doing their job when they report factual incidents. The immunity will not be enforced in case they harm others while expressing their personal views.’

For some reason this ‘clarification’ wasn’t splashed by every newspaper, as was the original statement from His Highness. This is a shame, as it is an important statement from the head of the police that should leave nobody in any doubt as to where they stand.

Cry Freedom!

His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, yesterday issued instructions that journalists were not to be jailed for doing their work.

This news leads every newspaper in the UAE today and rightly so, because it is important news and a huge step forwards. The news, incidentally, followed two days after the announcement that two Khaleej Times journalists were to be jailed for libel.

Interestingly the newspapers were all silent on the subject the day after the libel case was announced. All apart from Emarat Al Youm, the Arabic language daily newspaper published by government-owned Arab Media Group, which also publishes the English language Emirates Today. Emarat Al Youm published an excoriating three-page piece on media freedom in the UAE, detailing issues and investigations that had been faced by many of the dailies published in the Emirates.

Emirates Today, silent on the issue of media freedom yesterday, takes great pains to splash the Sheikh Mohammed today - and to claim the credit for the move coming after its 'sister newspaper condemned the decision to imprison two journalists... the report categorically criticised the sentencing of two journalists...'

And so it did, but many will find Emirates Today riding on the back of the widely recognised strong editorial standards of its Arabic 'sister' paper just a little rich.

There's some interesting ambiguity in the reports. Making the announcement, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chairman of the National Media Council (NMC) said that no journalist is to be jailed for reasons related to his work, adding (according to Gulf News which is itself very careful to attribute the quote to WAM, the national news agency) that there are 'other measures that may be taken against journalists who break the press and publication law, but not jail.'

If you want to wade through it, then here's a link to a copy of that law. It's a fascinating read if you're anything to do with media in the region and is in PDF format.

The KT case, if it was heard under the publishing law (likely as the case was brought by the public prosecution and looks like it might have followed an earlier civil case in which KT was exonerated) appears to have been an argument between article 47, which permits the quotations of arguments and pleading which take place in the courts and article 79, which prohibits publishing details of an individual's private life. I may just be wrong there, it's difficult to tell because of the paucity of information in the media reports of the trial.

If we are reading the announcement about the publishing law right, this would also mean that the stipulated one to six month jail terms for offences under clauses 71 to 85 (too numerous to reproduce here, but worth looking through, believe me!) are also out. And that's really interesting.

The press and publication law is due to be replaced by newer legislation. However, it has to be said that this new legislation has been awaited for a long time - arguably since the announcement that Dubai Media City was to be established.

The two KT journalists have been freed on bail. It is only to be hoped that their case will, indeed, be covered by this directive and that this is a step on the road towards a more open media. However, the new media legislation - a huge task and a complex one - is really going to define that: as is the way it is implemented by the courts.

Incidentally, Gulf News' editorial today rumbles on about press freedom and makes the point that Sheikh Mohammed's move proves that the press truly is the fourth estate. I found that interesting, as here in the UAE it is not the fourth estate nor could it be. So that was a silly thing to say, wasn't it?

Mahmoud Ahmadinajad Rocks

I do wonder if I'm the only person who found Mahmoud Ahmadinajad's performance at Colombia University a compelling one. I do wonder if I'm the only person that thought his introduction and the official speech of welcome was insulting and immensely skewed. And I wonder if I'm the only person who finds the way that an American academic institution's officers treated a visiting head of state was appalling by any standard.

And yet Ahmadinajad put in an impressive performance. Sure, he was a bit too Godly for secular Western tastes at times. Sure, he wasn't going to take questions like 'Do you oppose a Jewish State of Israel?' head-on. But he did a damn good job, overall. He pointed out that his country couldn't equip civil airliners because of sanctions: that America, the UK, Germany and others had defaulted on contracts, had provided material assistance to Iraq in attacking Iran, had worked to destabilise his country's elected (for better or for worse) government. It wasn't a bad case to make and he made it pretty well.

What a shame he wasn't a lunatic demagogue with no sense at all of rhetoric or public speech. That would have made it so much easier to continue to mindlessley demonise him.

I do wonder what Georgie boy will do tomorrow against a man who is brighter and more charismatic than he is. I'm not saying Mahmoud isn't dangerous. But he's damn smart and, as he pointed out in his address, comes from a cultured and capable people.

Not bad. The jury's out, for sure... But you had to have watched the entire performance... How many of us got that chance?

And at the end, he waited for his host (he had already made the point that in his, the Middle Eastern, culture - and as an academic who had invited speakers to his university - you didn't insult a guest: it was a very pointed point in view of his embarrassing reception by the Colombia staff) to walk across the stage and shake his hand. Alone and suddenly small, he waited. And finally, long tens of seconds after the announcement that he had to leave and couldn't take more questions (and yet stood on the stage, not going anywhere), he got a brief, grudging touch of palms.

Mahmoud 1 America 0. Let's see what tomorrow brings.