Media council denies book ban

Matt Kwong

• Last Updated: September 16. 2008 12:50AM UAE / September 15. 2008 8:50PM GMT

ABU DHABI // The National Media Council denied last night that it had banned a study of Dubai written by a former professor at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed University and said approval for publication in the UAE had been granted.

There were claims in the British press that Dr Christopher Davidson’s book, Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success, had been banned due to its content.

But yesterday, the NMC confirmed it had already been approved for countrywide distribution, said Peter Hellyer, the council’s information adviser.

“The council felt the book should be taken seriously and so we’ve studied it carefully,” said Mr Hellyer. “The process takes time and Dr Davidson told the media the academic book had been banned before the National Media Council had even seen it.”

Mr Davidson, who currently lectures at Britain’s Durham University, told the British newspaper The Guardian that his book was banned as a “knee-jerk reaction” to its content. The work charts Dubai’s rise to prominence and regional stability and is meant to analyse the problems the emirate may face because of dwindling oil reserves.

Mr Hellyer said that while there had never been a ban, the study contained “a plethora of errors”.

“There is a statement that there was no tarmac highway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai until the mid-1990s, and no all-weather road between Dubai and Fujairah until 2006,” Mr Hellyer said. “These are clearly completely wrong and it makes one doubt the quality and depth of his research.”

He also took issue, he said, with a section regarding the discovery of Dubai’s oil fields.

Mr Davidson “writes that in the mid-1960s, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed, the Ruler of Dubai, created a company to operate Dubai’s on-shore oil fields,” Mr Hellyer said. “The only on-shore oil fields were not discovered until 1982.”

Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success was published in Britain in May by Hurst.

The Guardian reported earlier this week that the distributor had inquired about the status of the book with the NMC.

Mr Hellyer said it was possible the distributor’s agent misunderstood what was said because the NMC had not yet approved the book. He may have “mistakenly taken that to mean the book was being banned”, Mr Hellyer said.

“Neither the author, the publisher, nor the distributor contacted the NMC about whether or not the book had been banned before Dr Davidson went to the press to say it had been banned,” he said.

“They still haven’t contacted us. It’s a funny way to do things.”

The NMC told The Guardian that the book had been approved for distribution in the UAE on Sunday.



mkwong@thenational.ae