Increasing Influence in the UK Media Landscape

In recent years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf states have markedly expanded their influence within the UK media sector, raising concerns about potential impacts on press freedom, editorial independence, and diplomatic relations.

Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai and Due Process International, warns that the multifaceted dimensions of Gulf nations, particularly the UAE, exerting their presence in the UK media landscape, represents a form of soft power and strategic positioning by the Gulf, which threatens to deflect from pressing human rights concerns.

“Over the past 15 years, we have seen a significant shift, almost a reversal of the historical power dynamic between the UAE and the UK,” Stirling explains, “When we first began our advocacy work for foreign victims of injustice in the Emirates, the British government wielded considerable diplomatic clout and the UAE was highly sensitive to Western rebuke. Today, we see UK government officials treading very lightly when it comes to even mild criticism of human rights abuses in the Emirates and in the Gulf States; and sometimes the FCDO appears almost powerless to intervene when British citizens are wrongfully detained or falsely prosecuted in the UAE. This is largely due to the very deliberate campaign by the Gulf countries to cultivate influence and economic leverage in the UK and Europe.”