Asia-Pacific, Headlines

MEDIA-UAE: ‘Lazy’ Journos and ‘Unwilling’ Officials

Peyman Pejman

DUBAI, Jun 17 2005 (IPS) - Many people working in the local and international media in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the Middle East’s fastest growing nations, complain the country is doing a poor job of satisfying their needs.

Government and private sector officials, by and large, plead guilty to the charge, acknowledging the gap between what the media want and what they have been able to provide.

But at the same time, some authorities blame journalists for not doing their share, saying media workers in the UAE are even less dogged in their pursuit of information than their colleagues in other Gulf countries, expecting the government to hand them information.

“They made every effort to attract major media to Dubai, from television stations like CNN to news agencies like Reuters,” says one correspondent for a large U.S. media organization.

“But they have misunderstood or not understood what happens after that. Once journalists get here they want to work, and when they try to work there is absolutely no understanding whatsoever in the UAE what needs to be done,” says the correspondent.

At the root of the complaints is that many – if not most – UAE officials are less than enthusiastic about interacting with the media, although no one suggests they try on purpose to hide information.

Even bodies that in other countries would be in charge of helping journalists get access to information either shy away from the media or simply say that is not their role.

The Dubai Press Club, for one, boasts the following on its Internet site:

“The aim of the Dubai Press Club is to foster interaction among journalists and media professionals from around the world, to promote exchange of ideas between the newsmakers and the news communicators, and to create a world-class facility that fosters pursuit of journalistic excellence.”

It even offers a “media workshop for working journalists . to upgrade your communication skills”.

Somewhat ironically, however, the head of the press club, Mona Al Marri, did not return various requests for interviews for several stories over a six-month period, despite repeated phone calls and emailed questions.

“She is very busy travelling all the time and does not have time to be interviewed,” said Fem Muralla, who fielded various phone calls from a reporter.

The ministry of information in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, too, has come under criticism by journalists in the country.

“Neither the ministry (in Abu Dhabi) nor the department of information (in Dubai) has done anything to facilitate efforts to get interviews with officials,” says a Western journalist in Dubai.

But a ministry official in Abu Dhabi, who said he was unwilling to be officially interviewed, said people do not understand the role of the ministry.

“I think you have overestimated our role. This is not a centralized operation and you are not in Iraq or Syria,” he said, referring to two countries in the Middle East where the central government tightly controls the media.

The official said that even his own minister “does not like to give interviews because he does not want to be at the centre of things”. It was not clear how many interview requests the minister had received and how many interviews he has granted.

For their part, government officials say some UAE-based journalists are, essentially, lazy.

“It is not fair that a lot of people complain without putting in the hours it takes (to develop relations),” said an Abu Dhabi-based official closed to the highest levels in the government.

“You sit in your posh and air-conditioned offices in Dubai, don’t want to come to Abu Dhabi, where the central government is, and then complain that you are not getting access,” he added.

“You (can) come here, attend (conferences and seminars) where ministers and officials are present, approach them and they would talk to you willingly. They are very approachable,” said the official, who asked that his name not be mentioned.

As a proof of the government’s eagerness to see a booming media in the country, the officials point to the local press, which has become less timid in its reporting. They say whatever restrictions the local press now face are a result of self-censorship, which officials also oppose.

The persistent problems are both cultural and organizational, and officials say they are working on both types.

“I think that the Gulf’s ability in general, and not the UAE in particular, to interact with the world press has been much slower than the growth itself. The concept itself is new to the people. It is also not the question of whether the press is happy or unhappy, but what can we do to better explain ourselves,” said the Abu Dhabi-based official.

“But it is also the question of how can we institutionalise (access for journalists) and be able to respond to the international press. We do have official spokesmen in some key offices like the ministry of oil or the central bank. Do we have them everywhere? No. But we have them where we get most of the questions,” he added.

The media lag is not limited to the government. The private sector has its problems.

“They are absolutely useless. No one likes to deal with them because they are probably the most ineffective, disorganized and unresponsive of all,” a local journalist said of Al-Nakheel, the largest real estate development company in the country.

Real estate is the fastest growing sector of the UAE economy.

Al-Nakheel was contacted, and sent questions via email, but did not respond to requests to be quoted for this article.

It and other firms in the private sector are lagging behind in meeting media needs because of two reasons, analysts here say.

The first reason is that although most organizations have some type of public relations unit, the staff does not have the skills to respond adequately to the growing needs.

To deal with that, many in the private sector have sought help from local and international public relations companies, giving a boost to that business in the UAE.

The other problem is one that even the government faces, one that many have come to call the “cult of personality”.

“In many places, the top guy cannot bear the thought of delegating the job of speaking for the company or the ministry to anyone but himself. It is a status issue. And when you get 100 media requests in a day or a week, you obviously cannot function,” says a manager of an international public relations company in Dubai.

“At that point, it does not matter whether you have qualified staff or qualified public relations hacks. If you don’t learn to let go, all you get is bad publicity and if that continues, the whole image of the country will suffer,” he said.