Authorities removed copies of the Sunday Times (London) from news shelves in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, over a report on Dubai’s debt problems, the Wall Street Journal reports:
“The National Media Council ordered the paper blocked by distributors without providing a reason, an executive at the paper in Dubai told Zawya Dow Jones.
“The Sunday Times edition available in the UAE on 29 November featured a double-page spread graphic illustrating Dubai’s ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum sinking in a sea of debt. The Times wasn’t given a reason for the block, or a timeframe when it will be lifted, the executive said.
“A government official in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, said that the picture of Sheik Mohammed, which accompanied a story entitled: The sinking of Dubai’s dream, was ‘offensive’.”