In April 2004, it was estimated that the number of Internet users in the U.A.E was 1.25 million, 31% of the population. This statistic places the Emirates amongst the most advanced nations in Internet use not only amongst Arab states but internationally as well. (1)

    In its assessment of national e-government programs, the United Nations gave the Emirates an e-government index of 2.17, ranking it number 1 amongst Arab states and number 21 in the world. The U.A.E. is included amongst those states with "High E-Government Capacity."

    This high rank does not necessarily reflect the real situation of the Internet in the Emirates. Internet users suffer from high prices for connection services. Thousands of users in the Emirates have complained about these high prices. In addition, these users have launched a campaign to boycott the Internet and have distributed messages via e-mail calling upon all U.A.E. users to boycott the Internet till the government responds to their demand and decreases the price of the ordinary line and the comprehensive service (which includes the cell phone and the land line).

    Mohamed Al-Fahim, the vice president and executive director of the marketing sector at Etisalat (the Emirates Telecommunication Corporation), denounced the boycott and refused to respond to the request for clarification submitted to him by the Emirati newspaper Al Ittihad concerning the aforementioned campaign. Fahim took no steps to examine the reasons for the boycott.

Sheikh Abdullah Ben Zaied Al Nahian, the Minister of Culture and Media, agreed with the thousands of users and called for a decrease in the price of the Internet connection service. He believes that that the fees of the Internet connection in the Emirates is high when compared with the world average; there are others, however, who claim that the fees are considerably lower (3).

The Censorship Debate

The issue of censorship in the U.A.E is the subject of great debate. The Emirati Minister of Transportation, Ahmed Hameed Al-Taier, stated to the newspaper Al-Bayan that "the Proxy Filtering System was the main reason behind the spread of the Internet in the country. Many people allowed access to the Internet inside their homes upon the condition that there be some sort of censorship to protect their families from websites offensive to their morality." At the same time he asserted that, "The Emirates, in comparison to many other states, is not considered restrictive. Even the most developed countries impose censorship on the Internet for several reasons other than those of morality." (4) In contradiction to the above statements, the Minister of Culture and Media Ben Nahian called for absolute freedom of the Internet and for the cancellation of the Proxy Filtering System. He said that the government should not impose censorship on individuals and that the Emirates Company for Internet and Multimedia, the state's only ISP, should not prevent access to certain websites. He added that Internet censorship should be optional and that the government should trust the judgment and intentions of its citizens. (5)

An Emirati writer reported to the Elaph website that blocking online information is primitive and uncivilized and that the age of hiding information and of government controlled media and information was a thing of the past.

In an article published in the Qatari newspaper Al-Raya, Abdullah Al-Amady argued that people have the means to access information even if it is banned by the government. Thus, to ban information merely decreases the government's credibility in the eyes of its people. Al Amady also wrote that "no company has the right to prevent users from logging on to certain websites, as the users are paying for this service and the agreement between the user and the ISP does not entitle the company to play the role of the users' guardian." He also added that banning websites and monitoring information do not respect users' safeguarded legal rights to knowledge and to the access of information. (6)

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Footnotes
1- Translated Internet news. Accessed on 6 May 2004-05-17
http://www.ameinfo.com/arabic/Detailed/20220.html
2- Good news 4me. Information and Technology gateway. Accessed on 28 March 2004.
http://www.gn4me.com/etesalat/article.jsp?art_id=5942
3- Al-Ettehad website, 31 December 2003, Accessed on 22 March 2004
http://www.alittihad.co.ae/search.details.asp?M=1&ArticleID=81863
4- Al-Bayan website, 20 October 2002, Accessed on 5 May 2004.
http://www.albayan.co.ae/albayan/2002/10/20/ola/3.htm
5- Al-Bayan website, 13 October 2002, visited on 17 August 2003
http://www.albayan.co.ae/albayan/2002/10/13/ola/2.htm
6- Elaph website, 20 May 2002.