Freedom of Expression
For more details on this topic, see Emirates Discussion Forum.As is the case with religious freedom, Dubai does, in comparison to other nations in the region, extend a degree of toleration for freedom of expression. Sheikh Mohammed, Dubai’s Crown Prince, has made public speeches asserting that Dubai will remain committed to press freedom, international journalists are generally left alone and a new law was enacted that will protect journalists from imprisonment for doing their job. The Constitution of the United Arab Emirates guarantee freedom of opinion, press and expression within the limits of the law.
However, human rights groups have expressed concerns about freedom of expression in Dubai, which is often limited by enacted laws or Ministerial edicts in the name of protecting traditional Islamic morality or the image and reputation of Dubai and its leaders.
In 2007, the Dubai government shut down two Pakistani based television channels, Geo News and Ary One. Their entertainment, but not news and political programming, were eventually permitted to broadcast in Dubai.
The Dubai Ministry of Culture and Media banned the exhibition of a play, "Kholkhal", just hours before it was scheduled to be performed at the 8th annual Gulf Theater Festival.
While journalists can no longer be jailed for doing their job, other legal actions can be taken against them. Several members of the Dubai press remain on a government list as being banned from being published within the Emirate. There is also reportedly a degree of self-censorship that occurs, for fear of governmental sanctions, of certain topics that are critical of government policy, the royal family, or may offend traditional Islamic morality.
Read more about this topic: Human Rights In Dubai
Famous quotes containing the words freedom of, freedom and/or expression:
“I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“We believe that Carlyle has, after all, more readers, and is better known to-day for this very originality of style, and that posterity will have reason to thank him for emancipating the language, in some measure, from the fetters which a merely conservative, aimless, and pedantic literary class had imposed upon it, and setting an example of greater freedom and naturalness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Wags try to invent new stories to tell about the legislature, and end by telling the old one about the senator who explained his unaccustomed possession of a large roll of bills by saying that someone pushed it over the transom while he slept. The expression “It came over the transom,” to explain any unusual good fortune, is part of local folklore.”
—For the State of Montana, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)