It is fair to say that the UAE never expected their abductions of Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum, Herve Jaubert, Tiina Jauhiainen, and the crew of Nostromo to ever become a media issue. According to both Jauhiainen and Jaubert, up until the Daily Mail broke the story of their disappearance, UAE officials were planning to barbarically execute everyone they had captured. Indeed, had the Daily Mail delayed publishing the story by even one day, we do not know if any of them would have

According to salary information released through WikiLeaks, journalists in the UAE are paid wages associated more with the Public Relations industry than with newspapers; and that makes sense. When you consider that the UAE ranks 119th out of 180 countries in an index of press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders, it would seem that the primary function of media in the UAE is indeed, to serve as a government-sponsored propaganda operation. It is inconceivable; for