“There’s a deal you make when you become a journalist in the UAE: in exchange for a reasonable salary and a good position, you keep your nose out of meaty stories. If you don’t like it, you can leave,” writes Dana El Baltaji.
El Baltaji should know, having worked for Emirates Today (later Emirates Business 24/7) – a paper to challenge the status quo of censorship in the region, which according to this writer has ‘genuinely disappointed’ in this aim.
As such, will CNN’s new Abu Dhabi bureau report freely on the United Arab Emirates despite strict laws restricting coverage on the royal family and its businesses, asks this piece.