‘We are a government-owned newspaper … Our writing must be informative and interesting, but we cannot afford to upset or offend anyone.” “Of course we would never directly criticise the Sheikhs, the government or the country, because this is illegal.”
These aren’t words taken from a dystopian novel. Rather, they are the anonymous testimonies of newspaper employees working over the past few years in the United Arab Emirates. Sadly, it’s a daily reality for journalists in the Gulf state. For the UAE’s laws ban any direct criticism of the…
