Civil society leaders urge President to reconsider media law

Abu Dhabi: Civil society leaders appealed to President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to intervene to reconsider the new media draft law, which was passed by the Federal National Council on January 20.

A petition signed by more than 100 Emirati academics, lawyers, journalists, artistes, human rights activists and non-governmental organisations (NGO's) members, said the law "does not live up to ambitions seeking to raise the level of freedoms especially the freedom of the speech and the Press".

They added the law is unclear, harms civil liberties and curtail free media work in the UAE.

Dr Ebtisam Al Kitbi, professor of political science at the UAE University, who led the list of signatories, told Gulf News that the media law does not live up to the political leadership's ambitions and the UAE's achievements on all fronts.

"The law besieges all media outlets and means of expression of opinion. I cannot imagine that the political leadership reviewed this law."

The new media draft law scraps jail terms for journalists and instead imposes up to Dh5 million fine for breaking the law.

The draft law requires the Cabinet's approval and the President's signature before it is enacted into law.

Dr Aisha Al Nuaimi, associate professor of mass communications at the Sharjah University, labelled the law as a step backward for the UAE press and civil liberties.

"The law does not protect the public's right to information. The right to information is one of the main human rights that protect and develop the human life. The use of this right will be able to contribute to resolve the social and cultural problems of the individual and the national level.

"The government is trying to improve political life, and the media law should be in line with that process, but it fails to do so," she said. "The FNC has failed to protect journalists," she stressed.

"The law makes it difficult for media outlets to grow as the NMC still has a monopoly over the licensing of newspapers. Revoking the licences is still in the hands of three bodies; the NMC, the Cabinet and Court. This is interfering with the power of the courts," she explained.

Dr Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, professor of political science at the UAE University, said the law does not provide the proper environment for discussing freely the UAE's national issues.

"The law will impact the image of the country and does not live up to our aspirations for freedoms in the UAE. It should reflect the views and concerns of people."

Civil society leaders said the draft law is mixing up a media law, a law for media activities and another for media-free zone.

The draft law contains 45 articles, 42 of them on journalism and only three on media activities.