Another lost opportunity for the Dubai media
Posted on 03 December 2009 with no comments from readers
The last week should have been the Dubai media’s finest hour with a major global story breaking in its own back garden. Instead the news agencies made all the running, and the local newspapers chose to keep the story off the front page as far as possible.
The local media are not understaffed but they did have a major conflict of interest last week. Most publications are at least partly government owned. If the owners are in trouble a newspaper or magazine or website will always let its readers down first.
Huge global story
So that is what happened. Rather than give the inside view of a hugely important international financial story, the local media chose silence.
Ironically a more active stance might have actually helped the Dubai Government which dug itself into an enormous hole with a botched PR announcement, and then kept on digging for days.
It took several days to learn that a $60 billion debt actually amounted to no more than $26 billion – still a substantial sum but not as big. And for officials to clarify the status of Dubai World as a government-owned corporation without a government guarantee for its debts. And then for us to learn that Nakheel and Limitless, the real estate companies, are the only units in trouble.
A little solid financial journalism might have put the facts straight much earlier, if journalists were trusted or had the contacts, or editors were rather less concerned about doing the right thing for their owners and more about getting the story right.
Ironically again it was Abu Dhabi’s state-owned National newspaper that did the best job of reporting the story locally, followed perhaps by the Dubai tabloid 7Days. But for the real story you just logged onto Bloomberg.com or FT.com. If you wanted complete exaggeration and nonsense The Times was in a league of its own.
Censorship not practical
The idea that a local editor somehow has the power to bury a story by not printing it is increasingly absurd in the Internet age. This decision just makes the editor’s publication weaker and encourages readers to go online for their news and comment.
At the end of the day when a newspaper begins to lose its readership then advertisers will take notice and explaining the loss of circulation to owners might actually be harder than standing up for an important story.
That is the correct approach for editors to take when a major story breaks, and if they stop doing their job properly then only their newspapers will suffer, and their rivals get stronger. Heads will roll on this, but sadly only as advertising falls away.
no Comments posted by readers:
Another PR classic with long term consequences.
The best materials were on FT/Alphaville and Zerohedge.com
Sam
Peter, you and I have frequently disagreed in the past but I concur completely here and it’s a reminder how disappointing the so called development of the media has been in the region. Silence is rarely golden and the determination to put a smiley face on everything threatens all credibility in future. I even have my comments on AB.com censored these days for not being “happy” enough.
Just returned from Southern India where the crisis was reported upon in a more informative manner than anything I see in locally controlled offerings.
I thought I was a lone voice in the desert!
You think they “chose” to do nothing?
Really?
I honestly don’t. I honestly think that there are many, many intelligent and well-informed local journalists who have gone bald from tearing their hair out this week, solely because of the levels of frustration they must have faced. I do not believe that the people that I know and respect in the region “chose” to stick their heads in the sand, to repeat a massively overused image. I also know many who would have happily looked the other way, the circle I refer to is sadly quite small. Still, it does exist.
We have GOT to accept that the media here is government owned, at least partly. At the top of the tree sit management types, not editorial ground breakers. The Arabic media were allowed more room to manoevre and editorialize, as they have Editors in Chief closer to the top of the tree, who have access to the right majlis and mobile numbers. They are also trusted to express the messages in the local language of the government, and that should not be underestimated.
There’s a lot of fear going around – FUD is the name of the day. Don’t cast blame before take the causes in to account. Then go crazy. There is plenty to go round.
Ed Note: do you think newspaper readers can be expected to consider the feelings of the journalists? It is a professional job and you are judged only on the results!
i gave up on the local media (gulf news, khaleej times, gulf today) a long time ago. that freedom of journalism crap was just pr to bring ppl into media city, thats where it ended.
Nowadays, I just read page 2- the local stuff of new fees, holiday annoucements thats it, the rest of the paper is junk. For the real dubai stuff, I have my google news feed ticked to Dubai and the secret dubai rss twitter feed. Skyscrapercity is another one I am starting to look at for property development and insight.
Whatever crap the times may publish, it was a bad move for dubai to block its publication for a day when it spoke about the debt situation.
That debt is much bigger then $60 Billion. Just wait for things to unfold after December 14th when the defaults start getting announced.