Doha Debates Dubai advert banned

Monday, January 11 2010

Abu Dhabi's National newspaper has refused to run an advertisement by The Doha Debates, promoting a controversial session about Dubai, broadcast by BBC World News last Saturday and Sunday.

The advertisement showed a picture of two panellists against a Dubai skyline with the question: "is Dubai a bad idea?"

Sources close to the newspaper said its staff had been afraid of upsetting Dubai's rulers, already sensitive over international coverage of their financial crisis.

The National's Advertising manager Andy Tideswell told agents in Doha that.."due to the content of the ‘Doha Debates' ad a late decision was taken to pull the ad from the 8th January issue."

Sales Director Stephen Dennis Lee added: "I am sure the Qatar Tribune would not wish to publish an ad claiming that Doha is a bad idea no more (sic) than we would carry such an ad about our own country."

Doha Debates' chairman Tim Sebastian said the National's decision represented a serious blow to free speech in the region. "This was an important debate about Dubai, in the wake of widespread international concern over the Emirate's finances. Our mainly Arab audience voted 62% against the motion that Dubai was a bad idea. I'm amazed and disappointed that such a prominent regional newspaper would reject our advertisement on such openly political grounds."