01 November, 2006

ITV slammed for Dubai news report like "a promotional video"

"ITV slammed for Dubai news report like "a promotional video"

ITV’s Meridian Tonight has been rapped by Ofcom after it promoted Dubai and Virgin Atlantic in two news reports broadcast on consecutive days.
...
The presenter/reporter used phrases including: “Well they say Dubai has everything and by the looks of it, it certainly does…” and “…if it’s weather, security and a rest you’re after, it’s worth a visit.”
...
ITV argued that although it had accepted a Virgin press trip and had also accepted the offer of a holiday to Dubai as a competition prize, it “retained complete editorial independence over the reports and was free to say whatever it wanted about the destination and the airline”.

While it did not accept that it was in breach of the broadcasting Code, the broadcaster admitted that on reflections it had probably devoted too much airtime to the Dubai features.
-- more HERE

5 comments:

Woke said...

Reminds me of the Philips Dubai offer of Free world cup tickets to reporters who give 'the best coverage' to the company during the World Cup.

B.D. said...

I see this as a common problem--there is too much reporting in the UAE, especially of the various new developments, that read like press relases. Although, I'm a fan of all these things, I'd really like to see more critical reporting. With regard to Dubai Marina, for example, I would like, to read more critical reports in the Gulf News about say deaths and accidents at construction sites. Instead what we get are a lot of nice photos.

Anonymous said...

so what/who do you think is behind it?

secretdubai said...

I see this as a common problem--there is too much reporting in the UAE, especially of the various new developments, that read like press releases.

That's because they are press releases. And I'm not talking about sites that have actual press release wires, like Strategiy and AME Info and so on, I'm talking about newspapers who cut and paste the same PR shit verbatim and publish it as "editorial".

Anonymous said...

To be fair though, most Arabic newspapers in the UAE do 'edit' press releases. They shorten it.. sometimes add their own bits into it, etc.

Also, TradeArabia (web) seem to also like editing press releases.

All in all, there is no editorial content in local newspapers.

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