Updated: March 26, 2024

Miss L. Lane asks if anyone has any further information or comment on this 30th May story from The National:

A British journalist was acquitted this morning of defaming an English-language newspaper in Dubai and describing its management as unethical and immoral.

MT, 49-year-old former business editor of the newspaper, denied the charges in the Dubai Court of Misdemeanors Court in September 2010. Prosecutors had said he described the newspaper’s management as “driven by sex and money”.

MT wrote on the newspaper’s website that women who failed to get jobs at the newspaper had claimed they were rejected because they didn’t have sex with the managers.

MT was also accused of abusing the Etisalat telecommunications system to hassle the newspaper’s management and directors, as well as insulting by posting defamatory material using the paper’s website.

At the time of the incident, an Egyptian manager at the paper lodged a complaint at Bur Dubai Police Station. He told police that an internet user had posted defamatory material on their website.

About a month later, the newspaper identified MT and reported him to police.

The verdict is subject to appeal within 15 days.