• Population: 2,937,000
  • Internet users: 1,300,000 (2003)
  • Average charge for 20 hours of connection: 10 euros
  • DAI*: 0.64
  • Situation**: difficult

The media is fairly free but strong social and political restrictions encourage self-censorship. The Internet is only officially censored for "pornographic" websites but in practice a wide range of online publications is targeted.

A well-developed Internet scene, but a censored one

The country is one of the best-connected of the Gulf states but its rulers are not the most tolerant. No specific law governs the Internet and the only relevant one - the 1996 telecommunications act - seems rather liberal because it guarantees freedom of expression in all media. The UAE has had a kind of Silicon Valley - the tax-free Dubai Media City, occupied by 100 or so mostly foreign media, computer and new technology firms - since January 2002. The pan-Arab satellite TV network Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) has moved there from its London base.

But this gives a false impression of openness. Emirates Internet and Multimedia (EIM), part of the state telecom firm Etisalat, is the country's only ISP. The Internet is also still hampered by filtering that goes far beyond pornographic sites. Privacy International says Internet traffic in the UAE passes through several proxy sites which have filters installed. Censored pages are not the same on each proxy, which would explain why some sites are inaccessible only from some places.

Along with pornographic or sex-related sites, online publications about Buddhism, Sufism, religious sects and the US anti-war filmmaker Michael Moore are blocked. Dating sites are banned though marriage agencies are allowed in the UAE. Medical and scientific sites that show naked parts of the human body are also filtered out.

Suspected monitoring of online activity

The UAE has systems to monitor to monitor e-mail and Web activity, which leads users to censor themselves and avoid mentioning religion, morality, friendly countries or members of the ruling families.

Links

* The DAI (Digital Access Index) has been devised by the International Telecommunications Union to measure the access of a country's inhabitants to information and communication technology. It ranges from 0 (none at all) to 1 (complete access).

** Assessment of the situation in each country (good, middling, difficult, serious) is based on murders, imprisonment or harassment of cyber-dissidents or journalists, censorship of news sites, existence of independent news sites, existence of independent ISPs and deliberately high connection charges.

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