Thursday, 19 March 2009

From the World Champions of "Deny, deny, deny"


Following the publication of the Dubai Code of Conduct, the media in Dubai attempted to contact the issuing authority for clarification and more information. Alarabiya reports that this is the response they received:

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Nasser al-Hamali, Dubai Executive Council said, "We are not authorized to give any interview now and do not have any comment on this issue. We don't care what is published in newspapers," he told AlArabiya.net.

"Let the press and the people talk." (Thereby contravening Rule 4.4 which states " Spreading false news, statements or rumours....[is] punishable by law")

But an official government source familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter denied that such guidelines had been issued and said that if the report were true other newspapers would have received a copy of it.

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The Code of Conduct was first published in an Arabic language newspaper in Dubai after being "leaked".
Now that the Code's English translation has reached the outside world (where all the hand-holding tourists and investors live) we seem to be seeing another Great Dubai Turn-Around.

6 comments:

  1. I think they should allow bigger press freedom and freedom of speech. These days I don't know what to belief anymore. I feel that the press is not honest or they are a government tool. I don't know...

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  2. http://i.gizmodo.com/5171822/the-worlds-largest-luxury-yacht-sails-out-ofyou-guessed-itdubai

    Will that be denied?

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  3. Not too sure if my comment went through!

    But would this be denied?

    http://i.gizmodo.com/5171822/the-worlds-largest-luxury-yacht-sails-out-ofyou-guessed-itdubai

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  4. What do you figure is being banned left o' center in that image up there ?

    Caped Crusaders not allowed ? Green Lantern is kosher, but Superman can go to hell ? (wait, I guess kosher ain't the right word here...)

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  5. Anonymous at 20:51, you've really started something now :-)
    I've given this a bit of thought and I reckon row one shows the no holding hands rule...the couple shown are married of course. On the right? "No wearing teeshirts depicting the top of a flathead screw".
    Row Two: LOL, yes you're absolutely right...no caped crusaders (particularly if they have big thighs); in the middle "No cappucinos" and on the right, maybe this is a Kiwi thing, but it seems to mean "Ladies, no wearing your hoodies backwards"
    Row Three: A friend figured this one out, but then he's from Texas, the man on the left is carrying a smoking gun as he's just shot the bloke in the middle of the picture who's pushing the woman on the right out of the way. So the picture means "No gangland hits in the mall." For some unknown reason the woman appears to be on wheels.

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  6. I wondered how they would depict the "no cross-dressers" and "no cleavage showing", but if they're open to as much interpretation as above, there'll be a lot of confused people trying to decode these signs!

    I had to laugh at the "no groping" one at the bottom where it depicts the woman with breasts after banning showing cleavage. It's a wonder that the breasts haven't been coloured over with black felt pen!

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