Ah, Gulf News told to pay up. £1 million!

London Times reports....
AN EDINBURGH property developer has been awarded more than £1m in damages and costs against a Dubai newspaper after it wrongly said that he had deceived Middle East investors.

Mark Emlick, chairman and founder of Dunedin Independent, one of Scotland’s largest privately-owned independent financial advice businesses, won his case against the Gulf News in the High Court in London this week.

He brought the case for defamation of character after Gulf News reported in April last year that he and a partner were being sought in Dubai and in the UK by investors who claimed he had absconded with their money after a property deal that involved his company Strategic Property Investment group (SPI) went sour.

In fact, SPI had returned all the money owed to investors plus 5% interest, after it pulled out of the deal due to rising prices in the Emirate.

Emlick refused to disclose the amount he had been awarded but, along with his legal costs, it is estimated to have been more than £1m.

He said: “Anyone in business will tell you that your reputation is your most important asset, so to have that called into question was deeply concerning. I’m fortunate that I was able to bring a case to the High Court, but there are many people who would have been left high and dry, with their reputation in tatters.”

Emlick still has investments in Dubai.

When Garcia Compliments Gulf News

By John Cheeran
I haven't seen an astute salesman other than the celebrated newspaper designer Mario Garcia. Garcia belongs to many schools,as and when it suits him, but most part of the time, he swears by packaging.
Now Garcia has redesigned many Indian newspapers including the Hindu and Hindustan Times. There may be admirers for such changes in design. I don't want to quarrel with that. But essentially Garcia is the guy who believes in packaging the shit.
And that's what he has done with Gulf News in Dubai. Gulf News is an huge free mailer masquerading as a newspaper. It relies on syndicated stuff and wires to fill up its 72 pages of main edition, assorted supplements and throw away magazines.
Now, I respect Garcia as a designer. I'm not surprised when he praises Gulf News in his latest blog entry.

But Mr. Garcia, you have improved the design of the paper. But what about the content? Gulf News can't even get right a promo, which you have shown in your blog.
The newspaper proudly says: Beyond the news: a variety of magazines compliment the Gulf News's content and coverage."

Now Mr. Garcia, what do you have to say about magazines COMPLIMENT the Gulf News?
When you next time preach your gospel at the spacious, and anti-septic news room of Gulf News, will you tell the editors at the newspaper that there is a difference between COMPLIMENT and COMPLEMENT, and the ability to choose the right word helps a great deal to produce a decent newspaper?
I'm sure you will not. For I remember the last time when you talked about split infinitives at your impromptu sermons, its managing editors fainted.
So what if Gulf News murders English, the murder happens on glossy pages and in a pool of expensive North American templates.
Long live the salesman.

Olympian blunder: Gulf News off the mark again

By John Cheeran
Again Gulf News does it. That is, how to invite ridicule upon it.
Today's (August 12, 2008) Gulf News front page has a story that hails Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra, who won the country's first individual gold in Olympics.
The writer says "the 25-year-old from the western state of Gujarat," (see the image)
Bindra is Indian, but he belongs to Chandigarh and Punjab. Gulf News Sport Editor, I gather that, is an Indian but cannot get even the name of the state right, when his countryman shoots a historic gold medal.
India's misery in Olympics ended on Monday with Bindra shooting it right.
When will Gulf News readers' misery end?
Who will shoot the nitwits who produce such miserable stuff day after day?

Gulf News and its quote maker in Kolkata

By John Cheeran
A fellow blogger points out how a gentleman named D Datta manufactures quotes of international cricketers for Gulf News and makes a living out of it. Readers of Gulf News Sport section are subjected every other day to an interview from this quote maker from Kolkata – one day it is with Brian Lara, the other day with Gordon Greenidge and then, you have Sarfraz Nawaz.
Does he speak to the cricketers he allegedly interviews?
This blogger friend doubts. He points out the Zaheer Khan interview by D Datta published by Gulf News on April 8, 2008.

Wisden honour will motivate me to perform better - Zaheer

What was the recipe of your success?

I want to credit the Derbyshire Cricket County Club for the success. I was then out of the national squad, but Derbyshire helped me to get back into rhythm. My sincere thanks to Graeme Hick too, who was inspirational at the initial stages.

D Datta claims Gulf News spoke to Zaheer Khan.

Zaheer or Graeme Hick never played for Derbyshire.

For the record, ZK represented Worcestershire. Hick is a Worcs legend...

Gulf News carries on with its assault on readers

By John Cheeran
Gulf News refuses to learn. Or better still Gulf News revels in its own mediocrity.
Here are two gems from the paper's sport section in the last two days. On July 7, 2008, Gulf News sports editors honoured the BCCI president Sharad Pawar making him a 'double'. (view the image and headline.)
On July 8, 2008, an interesting story on Sri Lankan spinner Ajanatha Mendis was ended abruptly. (view the image and headline).
I could have understood the errors made by the paper but for the boastfulness of the paper and its illiterate editors. In fact I had heard 'quiet' a smart editor there saying 'even New York Times makes mistakes.'
Wonderful.
Read Gulf News at your own peril.

Gulf News Exposed: Again

By John Cheeran
Some guys will never learn.
In Tamil, that great Indian language, you call such gentlemen thirutha mudiyatha kazhuthai (Thi Mu Ka). This colourful phrase’s English version could be ‘Donkeys who could never be improved upon.”
I hate to feast on editorial errors but what Gulf News dishes out in its sport section each day, brings tears to my eyes.
If it is possible to rape a newspaper, then that is what being done right now by a few gentlemen in that newspaper, stripping away the last vestiges of credibility of this broadsheet.
Take today’s (June 23, 2008) Gulf News sport front page.
The lead story of the section opener is edited in an atrocious fashion.
The Gulf News sports journalists could not get the name of the star UAE footballer Ismail Mattar right in the picture caption that accompanies the lead story. A hungry sub-editor swallowed a T from Mattar! The story itself throughout suffers from ill-informed editing.
The third paragraph (see the image on top right) says “The Syrians tool the lead.”
Interesting. Spell check can never be a substitute for your language skills. A bit of attention could have set the tool into ‘took’ and saved the report that details the crucial World Cup qualifier clash between the hosts UAE and Syria.
And that’s not enough. The same sentence finishes by saying “Al Hussain who placed home.”
Placed home, what?
It should have read as placed the ball home. As a journalist, it is hugely embarrassing me for to chronicle the mistakes of a newspaper in this manner.
But does anyone care for the brand equity and credibility of the Gulf News?
Is there anyone in the management (editorial or marketing) of the Gulf News who cares to read his/her own newspaper in the morning?
Or have they all begun to read The National for their news?

'Quiet' an achievement: Classic howlers in Dubai journalism

By John Cheeran
This surely must rank as one of the classic howlers in journalism. A sub-editor who does not know his English, despite having formally studied it, and dumb enough not to rely on a dictionary in sheer arrogance or ineptitude, plunges the newspaper’s brand equity to new depths.
When Sachin Tendulkar celebrated his birthday on April 25, 2006, the Dubai-based Gulf News newspaper decided to gatecrash the party with a lead headline that said volumes about the illiterate journalism that it does in the Middle East. See the image on top right. The sub-editor who wrote the headline, apparently, is unaware of the world of difference in meaning between ‘quiet and quite.’ And quietly the headline went all the way to press, to be a living proof of the quality of journalism that the newspaper practises.
Well, as the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky observed “everyone has a right to be stupid, but one should not abuse that right.”
If only such gentlemen journalists could heed Trotsky’s wisdom!

Is Mohammed Asif grappling with mystical forces in Dubai?

By John Cheeran
Now where is Mohammed Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, who was stumped at the Dubai International Airport for allegedly possessing some illegal substance?
I have been eagerly reading Gulf News for update on Asif, especially after the newspaper sentenced the rookie bowler to grapple with mystical forces for his ‘crime’.
But it is Indian newspapers and wire agencies who are ferreting out information on the bowler’s status.
Gulf News, being a Dubai newspaper, and if reporters and editors there have any remains of pride to call themselves journalists, should be bringing us news on Asif’s plight rather than indulging in pathetic commentary.
A gloating advertisement for the newspaper says its journalists are exploring every lead to bring you a top quality paper. They are committed every minute to quality, claims the ad.
If that be so these guys should be breaking news rather than living on wire services. And consider, this is happening right at their doorsteps.
The mere fact that Asif has been detained by Dubai authorities since June 1 and will go on trial only on June 22 speaks a lot about the case.
Have we heard about 'justice delayed is justice denied'?
This, really, is a classic opportunity for a local newspaper to dig deep and identify a deep throat, and break fresh ground on the subject instead of wallowing in lazy and unintelligible assertions.
Or is it that the Gulf News commentator, who had a revelation about ‘mystical forces’, is busy stripping the Pakistani bowler of his influence in detention?
Come on guys, live up to your masthead. Give us some news.
You can save the earth a little later.

When mystical forces blow through Mohammed Asif's wallet in Dubai

By John Cheeran
It is quite amusing that Gulf News, a newspaper published from Dubai, has woken up from its slumber by carrying a comment piece in its sport pages on June 9, 2008, a week after Pakistan fast bowler Mohammed Asif was detained at the Dubai International Airport for allegedly possessing an illegal substance.
And what a piece of juvenile journalism it has turned out to be!
The verdict from Dubai Courts is yet to arrive and Pakistan Cricket Board has diligently maintained that Asif will be presumed innocent until authorities prove him guilty. That’s natural justice, by any reckoning.
But Gulf News on June 9, by carrying a signed comment piece, has jumped the gun and proclaimed Asif was caught with drugs.
Really?
What proof the Gulf News commentator has to write so?
Let me quote from that piece. “But with his latest transgression of getting caught with drugs on his person he may have sold out to the mystical forces.”
My God! What does the writer mean by ‘drugs on his person’? Where has he learnt his English from? All along the wire agencies said that a substance was found in Asif’s wallet. And to use a generic word such as drug, in this instance, is outright lazy and unpardonable journalism.
And come on, how on earth you can write that by “getting caught with drug on his person” becomes selling out to the mystical forces?
First let someone enlighten the Gulf News writer on what mystical forces mean. Is selling out to mystical forces something bad? I don’t think so. Many mystics have done it and instead of condemning, we revere them.
It is quite true that juvenile and amateurish writers take refuge in grandiose words such as ‘mystical forces’ to sell their point. Choose your words carefully. Trafficking in ideas needs not glib words but education and willingness to learn, two qualities the Gulf News writer sorely lacks.
And when did smoking a joint become such a precarious issue, a fight between good and evil?
And mind you, the GN guy in his desperation to sound intellectual is trying to elevate a 25-year-old gawky athlete to Christopher Marlowe’s Dr Faustus.
And will you please tell me what rewards Asif stood to get through “his apprenticeship with this powerful moral force”?
A brand ambassadorship from Afghan poppy farmers?
So who is naïve? Asif, or the juvenile journalist?
Leave all that alone. I suggest that Gulf News writer should refrain from inflicting mixed metaphors on his readers. Again allow me to quote from the writer’s masterpiece. “The graveyard of international cricket is littered with many tales similar to that of Asif’s.”
Aha. How many graveyards have you seen that are littered with tales? Corpses, yes. Skeletons, yes.
But tales?
Come on, mate. You need to develop yourself. And I don’t know how many chances you have been given by life.

(Click on the below links to get a better understanding of the quality of journalism in Dubai)

http://johncheeran.blogspot.com/2008/06/gulf-news-carries-on-with-spot-mistake.html

http://johncheeran.blogspot.com/2008/05/by-john-cheeran-do-you-want-to-work-as_1728.html
http://johncheeran.blogspot.com/2008/05/journalism-in-dubai-take-close-look.html
http://johncheeran.blogspot.com/2008/05/by-john-cheeran-do-you-want-to-work-as_3293.html
http://johncheeran.blogspot.com/2008/05/by-john-cheeran-do-you-want-to-work-as_3391.html
http://johncheeran.blogspot.com/2008/05/by-john-cheeran-do-you-want-to-work-as_01.html
http://johncheeran.blogspot.com/2008/05/by-john-cheeran-do-you-want-to-work-as.html
http://johncheeran.blogspot.com/2008/05/quality-of-journalism-in-dubai.html

Xerox Media and Mohammad Asif!

By John Cheeran
Journalism is great, and online journalism is greater.
One should call journalism of this age, and especially in the Middle East, Xerox Media, for its tendency to whore the news agency copies.
As wire agencies broke the news of Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif arrested at Dubai airport on charges of possessing illegal drugs, what do the Dubai-based newspapers do? Just xerox the story and simply put By A Staff Reporter.
That’s what Khaleej Times’s online edition proudly did, grabbing the AFP story and giving some value addition by adding By a staff reporter!. (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2008/June/theuae_June87.xml&section=theuae)

Gulf News' online edition fell back on Reuters to run the item.
And news had to flow from Lahore; not from Dubai where things were happening.
Hard work, one must say!

Read the AFP copy here
Pakistan's cricketer Asif arrested in Dubai on drugs charges
2 hours ago
LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistani fast bowler Mohammad Asif has been arrested at Dubai airport on charges of possessing illegal drugs, cricket officials said Tuesday.
The 25-year-old Asif was seized while returning home from India after featuring in a domestic event that ended on Sunday, a Pakistan Cricket Board official said on condition of anonymity.
"Yes, we can confirm about Asif's arrest. He was stopped at Dubai airport on charges of carrying opium and was supposed to be brought before the magistrate on Tuesday," the official said.
The PCB would brief the media about the situation later on Tuesday, he said.
"We have few details so we are gathering more and as soon as we get them we will brief the media. As far as we know he flew out of Bombay on Sunday morning and was detained at Dubai airport," said the official.
PCB human resources director Nadeem Akram is in Dubai and has also hired a lawyer to assist Asif, the official said.
Reports from Dubai said the local police have conducted several tests on Asif and would bring him before the magistrate later Tuesday.
The arrest is just the latest controversy to hit Pakistan's troubled cricket team over the past two years.
Asif was banned for one year after he tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in October 2006. Fellow paceman Shoaib Akhtar was banned for two years on the same charge.
The bans were however lifted on appeal two months later.
Akhtar meanwhile is appealing a lifetime ban imposed in April for repeated disciplinary problems.

What price for getting the headlines right: Journalism in Dubai

By John Cheeran

Do you want to work as a journalist in Dubai?
Do you want to work for the market leader in Dubai?
Please take a look at these clippings culled from Gulf News, Dubai.
The editor / journalist who has given this sport page headline can't even get a world famous name spelled correctly.
Full marks for meeting the deadlines!

Such talent is rewarded without fail in the organisation!
God save journalism and readers of this newspaper in Dubai.

Journalism in Dubai: Take a close look

By John Cheeran

Do you want to work as a journalist in Dubai?
Do you want to work for the market leader in Dubai?
Please take a look at these clippings culled from Gulf News, Dubai.
The editor / journalist who has given this sport page headline does not know the difference between It's and its.
Such talent is rewarded without fail in the organisation!
God save journalism and readers of this newspaper in Dubai.

Where do you find editors who can't tell apart Its from It's? Go to Dubai! And Pick up a copy of Gulf News

By John Cheeran
Do you want to work as a journalist in Dubai?
Do you want to work for the market leader in Dubai?
Please take a look at these clippings culled from Gulf News, Dubai.
The editor / journalist who has given this sport page lead headline does not know the difference between Its and It's.
What a shame that despite the management investing hugely in American design (Mario Garcia) some of the flunkeys in editorial department makes the product a broadshit par excellence!
Such talent is rewarded without fail in the organisation!
God save journalism, and readers of this newspaper, in Dubai.

Gulf News: Giving Credit where it's due!

By John Cheeran
Do you want to work as a journalist in Dubai?
Do you want to work for the market leader in Dubai?
Please take a look at these clippings culled from Gulf News, Dubai.
The editor / journalist who has given this strap for the interview could not have fucked it up worse. He makes the Pakistani batsman Hameed say he has helped India win the Test during the 2004 series, when Pakistan outplayed India! Such powers of vigilance from a great journalist!
Such talent is rewarded without fail in the organisation!
God save journalism, and readers of this newspaper, in Dubai.

Gulf News, Dubai: It's and Its - all happening there

By John Cheeran

Do you want to work as a journalist in Dubai?
Do you want to work for the market leader in Dubai?
Please take a look at these clippings culled from Gulf News, Dubai.
The editor / journalist who has given headline for this sport column does not know the difference between its and it's.
Such talent is rewarded without fail in the organisation!
God save journalism, and readers of this newspaper, in Dubai.

Quality of Journalism in Gulf

By John Cheeran
Do you want to work as a journalist in Dubai?
Do you want to work for the market leader in Dubai?
Please take a look at these clippings culled from Gulf News, Dubai.
The editor journalist who has given this sport page caption does not know the meaning of the word astride.
Such talent is rewarded without fail in the organisation!
God save journalism, and readers of this newspaper, in Dubai.

'Dont' do this to journalism, my boss! Quality of journalism in Dubai!

By John Cheeran

Do you want to work as a journalist in Dubai?
Do you want to work for the market leader in Dubai?
Please take a look at these clippings culled from Gulf News, Dubai.
The editor journalist who has given this sport page headline does not know the difference between don't and dont. Such talent is rewarded without fail in the organisation!

God save journalism and readers of this newspaper in Dubai.