I guess we should be grateful that the UAE has a more liberal attitude to these kind of things. Whilst you shouldn't be insulting, to a degree comment and debate within reason is allowed. I do know of bloggers however that have fallen foul of the law here, so freedom of speech is definitely not to be assumed.
http://www.itp.net/583551-saudi-arabia-forces-all-bloggers-to-get-a-license?tab=article
Showing posts with label Censorship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Censorship. Show all posts
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Contradictions challeged
From today's The National.
Basically, two men are appealing their conviction for showing indecent images on a video game in the billiard hall. Their defense is that they bought the machine legally and how can they know what images are going to be portrayed in the machine with 150+ multilevel games. Also to support their case they produced stacks of magazines and underwear packaging (also purchased legally) which show images far more indecent than the ones in question.
This case exposes major problems here, that of contradiction and hypocrisy. You can't show an indecent image on a games machine, but you can on underwear packaging. You can't show cleavage on a cereal packet, but you can show mannequins with "peep hole" bras in the mall. You can't wear "indecent clothing" at the mall, but you can go to a Dubai club venue wearing next to nothing. You can get arrested for having consensual sex if you are unmarried and living together, but a blind eye is turned to hoards of whores in many venues all over the country. And and and........
It is no wonder tourists (and others) fall foul of the law - all the contradictions are confusing.
I hope the two guys succeed in their defense, but I suspect that for some logic to be applied will be too much to ask.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Surprising find!
As we passed the magazine shelves in LuLu’s the other evening, Caz made a surprising find - a copy of FHM! For those not familiar with this publication, it is one of the original “lad’s mags”, famous for it’s “Highstreet Honeys” section (ahem... or so I am told). I didn’t flick though it, but I am sure it will contain the usual marker pen censorship all magazines are subject to out here, if they are showing anything inappropriate - examples of which you can see here.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Thursday, January 29, 2009
This makes me so angry!
This is taken from today's The National newspaper here in the UAE. I was going to blog it straight from their digital edition but it wasn't working, so sorry for the poor scan. It can also be read here:-
I see this the whole time on the roads and it really upsets me. Small children and babies are aloud to just wander around the car, sitting on the arm rest between the front seats, faces pressed up against the front or rear windscreen, or even with their heads out of the sunroof or side windows. WAKE UP - THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Often the adults will have their seat belts on, but apparently it's ok for your kids to roam free. I think it is under the misapprehension that allowing your kids to do whatever they like is good parenting, because you are allowing your kids to be happy. This is shown in the way they run riot and cause havoc in the malls too.
So in a country where roads deaths are the number one killer - I implore any UAE drivers reading this - please secure your children while driving. I am positive that if your god is a loving god he will not wish for a young life to be ended because you couldn't be bothered to follow common sense.
Rant over.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
UAE Censorship
While at the mall yesterday, thought I'd buy a magazine to show the censorship you find over here. This example is taken from "More" magazine from the UK. Now, given that you wouldn't want your young teenage kids to be reading this publication, even in the UK, what you see below is a little pathetic and also somewhat confusing. As you will see below the offending parts of the page are painstakingly covered over with marker pen. Each magazine is scrutinized for "unacceptable" bits and then each by hand is drawn over. So here we go......
This is banned....
This is banned....
This is banned!!
This is banned....
This is banned....
This is banned!!
....but apparently this must be ok?!!!!......
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