UAE Censors Capping Their Black Pens

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 001032

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP

E.O. 12958: 10/31/2019
TAGS: PREL PHUM PINS KPAO SCUL AE

SUBJECT: UAE Censors Capping Their Black Pens


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In the past several years the UAE has noticeably
relaxed its censorship of print media images. Perhaps reflecting a
generational change in leadership, nowhere is this change more
tangible than in advertisements depicting female models. Changes in
coverage of political issues are more subtle. END SUMMARY.

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THE PRIVATE SECTOR MEN WITH BLACK PENS
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2. (SBU) As in many Gulf countries, the UAE has a regime of
censorship to scan printed material for content deemed inappropriate
for its residents, historically using black markers to alter
revealing photographs of women in magazines and newspapers. Unlike
in many Gulf Countries, however, the UAE's censors are not government
employees. Rather the UAE outsources the function to the main
wholesale distributor of imported periodicals, Jashanmal Company.
Jashanmal censors either take an artistic approach to the task by
drawing in "clothing" to make a scantily-clad female appear to be
more modestly dressed, or they simply cover offending images with a
thick mark with a permanent black marker.


3. (SBU) Advertising agencies have long been aware of this practice.
An infamous advertisement tailored to the UAE marketplace depicted a
female model in profile with exaggerated black marker scribbles
beginning near her chest and extending far beyond to convey the
miraculous results that could be achieved by wearing a "Wonderbra".


4. (SBU) However, in recent years, censors in the UAE have become
considerably less heavy-handed. An Al Arabiya satellite television
channel reporter who previously worked for a UAE newspaper noted the
change, telling PolOff photographs that would have been censored just
a few years ago today remain untouched in the Emirates.

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The Censor's View
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5. (C) We were particularly struck by the recent appearance of fully
naked female figure (in an article about a European photography
exhibit) appearing in a recent edition of the Financial Times. In
response to this apparent violation of long-standing practice, the
Ambassador asked Mohan Jashanmal (long-time head of the eponymous
company's Abu Dhabi branch) whether the rules had changed. Jashanmal
explained that formal, government imposed censorship had ended during
the period when Shaykh Abdullah bin Zayed (AbZ) was Minister of
Information (i.e., pre-2006). AbZ had told Jashanmal that his
company would have to make its own judgment about what was acceptable
or not acceptable in the UAE market, and be liable for what appeared
in a public venue like a store. In effect, the UAE privatized not
just the function, but the underlying moral judgment, making it
market based. Jashanmal was careful to note that this applied only
to imported periodicals handled through retail distribution networks.
Domestic periodicals presumably exercise their own editorial
judgment (and The National has recently pushed to the limits by
publishing a picture of a partially unclad fashion model).
Periodicals delivered by subscription are a gray area (and presumably
how the FT article survived intact).


6. (C) COMMENT: The decline of the black pen censorship probably
reflects the gradual liberalization of the UAE's public discourse
especially under the post Zayed leadership. A more subtle shift is
also visible in treatment of issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, which is less doctrinaire, at least in the quasi-official
The National. It also shows the extent to which the UAE prefers a
private sector mechanism, even for the enforcement of a governmental
function like censorship.

OLSON