|
Our Reports
The Internet In the Arab World
A New Space of Repression?
No Rules, No Limits
United Arab Emirates:
Freedom of expression is missing despite a decision banning imprisonment for press crimes
|
|
|
In support of freedom of expression
ANHRI calls the UAE Judiciary to a different legal approach to handle the case of chief editor of "Hetta" e-magazine
Cairo October 10, 2009
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) calls Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal to a different legal approach to handle the case of "Hetta" e-magazine Chief Editor Ahmad Mohammed Bin Gharib. The Editor have been convicted and fined 5500 US$ in a case filed by the Board Chairman of "Abu Dhabi Media" Company due to comments on an article published in the paper. The comments were considered by the complainant and the General Prosecution as slander and defamation.
The case is based on an article published by the magazine in its issue No. 55 on May 4, 2009, under the title "Abu Dhabi TV: Emirate TV only in name"; http://www.hetta.com/new/news.php?do=view_subject&id=&ids=78 by the writer Enas Borini. The article criticized the way the Emirate TV channels are being administrated. The article did not exceed the permitted criticism, but the chairman of Abu Dhabi Media considered comments on the article "defaming him" and filed a complaint to the General Prosecution, which in turn decided to refer the case under number 8585 for the year 2009 to the Court on June 14, 2009. The court fined the editor of "Hetta" 20 thousand AED on 7 September and considered him responsible for comments posted on the website. The appeal hearing session is set to be next Monday, October 12, 2009.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information considers that:
First: Based on previous experience, we consider the UAE to be one of the few Arab countries that are making efforts in order to establish the value of freedom of expression and freedom of press. This was happening through the abolition of imprisonment in publication cases. So it is essential to expand the circle of those rights to include comments posted by readers and visitors of websites, which are not written by journalists or websites officials. Those comments are the result of interaction of readers and visitors with published articles.
Second: Since the present case is not related to writings written by the Editor Ahmed Mohammed Gharib or journalist Inas Borini, and is only about comments posted by readers, so the optimal treatment for these comments, that are considered to be defamatory, is to address the magazine and the webmaster asking them to delete these comments. It may also be a request for publishing clarification in pursuant to the right to reply. It is to be noted that the huge number of comments on the article demonstrates the interest of visitors in this subject, and also demonstrates that, in case he controls publishing the comments, it is hard for the web manager to read carefully all the comments. Meanwhile, the complaining should have requested the webmaster to publish a response to these comments, or even delete them - which is the trend in most countries all over the world. Instead, he directly resorted to criminal prosecution.
Third: dealing with e-press, is different from dealing with the printed, where the former has the advantage of fast and direct interaction with the public, and more able to identify the views of readers and visitors on the published stories and subjects. This gives a good idea of the concerns of public opinion and its interaction with different issues, which should be tackled with spirit of tolerance and criticism acceptance.
Fourth: The history and importance of "Hetta" e- magazine as the first electronic newspaper in the UAE, gives the magazine and its chief editor the right to presume good intentions before taking any legal actions. In this case it is better to look for the common good as the website of this magazine helps to present the view of a wide sector of people in the UAE on different issues through both the journalists and writers of the magazines and at the same time the comments posted by the visitors and readers. Hence, the consequences of the punishing the chief editor will be of a dangerous and harmful impact on the magazine and other websites. As any webmaster or web-manager, after this sentence, would think many times before tackling the topics of interest to the Emirate citizens. Moreover, they would resort to filtering the comments and tightening the freedom space for visitors to express their opinions, which is a waste of a key advantage of the electronic media, and a decline of freedom of expression.
Fifth: There are many incidents which proved that some officials who did not welcome being criticized on websites or blogs, they do themselves post offensive comments on the same article under alias names. Then they pursue the web-manager under the pretext of abusive comments. The final target of those officials is to cover the original issue being discussed, which usually includes permissible criticism. They also aim to avenge the critical writers and journalists.
Finally; it should be noticed that the complainer belongs to a media organization. On the other hand, the governmental officials who have accepted to occupy their important public posts should set a model for the acceptance of criticism no matter how severe it is, and must apply for a waiver of this issue and engage in dialogue with the editor of the magazine, asking for either their right to publish clarification regarding what is been written within the article and comments, or to delete comments that are abusive and gone beyond the permissible criticism.
The Network would like to refer the officials in the UAE and Arab judiciary to its jurisprudence adopted by different organizations defending freedom of expression regarding how to deal with comments on websites. It stressed on not accepting any complaining case concerning a comment on the site, unless it includes an official document proving that the victim has already requested from the web-manager to delete inappropriate comments or post his/her response. In this case, the case would be more concrete, keep pace with the evolution in the field of electronic publication and keen to guard freedom of expression and the right to criticism.
More information:
Legal Stand; The Arabic Network For Human Rights Information: Web Sites Owners And Administrators' Responsibility Of Posted Comments http://www.anhri.net/en/reports/2009/pr0913.shtml
|
|
