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United Arab Emirates blocks The New Arab website

United Arab Emirates blocks The New Arab website
1 min read
22 December, 2015
Readers in the UAE are no longer able to access The New Arab and al-Araby al-Jadeed as authorites blocked the sites, just days after Saudi Arabia took a similar step.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have blocked access to The New Arab and its Arabic sister publication al-Araby al-Jadeed.

Any attempt to access the website results in a message in Arabic and English reading: “The Internet is a powerful medium for communication, sharing and serving our daily learning needs. However, the site you are trying to access contains content that is prohibited under the ‘Internet Access Management Regulatory Policy’ of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates.”

 
This is not the first time that an Arab government has barred readers from visiting The New Arab or al-Araby al-Jadeed.

Last week, the government of Saudi Arabia took a similar decision. No explanation was given as to why either of these decisions were made.

The number of readers in the United Arab Emirates and in the Gulf in general has been rising significantly over the past few months.

Al-Araby al-Jadeed first went online on 30 March, 2014, and has quickly grown to become one of the largest and most wide-spread online news portals in the Arabic language.