Très intéressant article sur (l’échec journalistique de) The National, le quotidien d’Abu Dhabi : The National : Abu Dhabi’s brief experiment in press freedom
▻http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112542/national-abu-dhabis-brief-experiment-press-freedom
In May of 2011, The New York Times broke a big piece of news on The National’s turf: The U.A.E. had commenced with plans to raise a private army with the help of Blackwater founder Erik Prince. The purpose of the clandestine mercenary force was to “blunt the regional aggression of Iran” and “respond to terrorist attacks and put down uprisings inside the country’s sprawling labor camps,” the Times reported. At least two National reporters had been on the trail of that scoop, but were encouraged not to pursue the story, according to a former editor.
But even seemingly innocuous subjects became highly taboo fare. In February of 2010, for instance, a piece about Emiratis “embracing blogs” to address topics such as free speech and human rights was spiked because it was “too dangerous,” as an editor put it to Fattah in an email that was shared with me by a source. Fattah and his two chief deputies, Tion Kwa and Bob Cowan, spend much of their time poring over page proofs for any such offending copy, according to people who worked alongside them in the newsroom.
“The self-censorship was daily and severe,” said Nick Stout, who worked as a copy editor at The National until January of 2010. “There was just this pervasive paranoia. We avoided controversy at all costs and would shy from anything officialdom might find embarrassing or provocative in any way.”
(Noter au passage que le scandale absolu de la présence de mercenaires d’Erik Prince financés par les Émirats, n’a reçu quasiment aucun traitement dans les médias internationaux en dehors du NY Times, et a été largement occulté dans les médias arabes – je n’ai réellement vu passer qu’un article de Youssef Ashkar dans le Akhbar.)
Hé hé, Wikileaks au passage :
(A payroll spreadsheet leaked to WikiLeaks in March 2009 revealed that the editor-in-chief was making $430,000; the business editor $300,000; $60,000 for a lowly features writer.)