Skyline International Calls On The UN Not To Hold Conferences In The UAE

Madrid – Skyline International denounces the prevention of a Serbian journalist to enter the UAE after long hours of repressive detention without any reason.

Skyline says that on Tuesday evening, December 17, 2019, the Serbian journalist Stevan Dojcinovicreached the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech at the eighth conference of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

Dosinovic says that he was forcibly returned to Belgrade early Wednesday morning after spending 12 hours at the airport in detention. He was informed that he was on a blacklist of another country.

Skyline expresses its anger over the behaviour of the UAE authorities and fears that the action against Dusinovic could be a vengeful actıon related to his work on a site specialized in exposing the links between Serbian politicians and organized crimes, including Emirati projects in Serbia.

The international organization confirms that such an incident is new evidence of bad public freedoms and restrictions on press freedom in the UAE, which ranks 133rd on the World Press Freedom Index in 2019.

UAE human rights record

Skyline condemns the anti-corruption meeting held by United Nations in the UAE despite the poor record of freedoms and journalistic work in the country. Dozens of journalists and human rights activists are inside the UAE prisons, led by prominent activist Ahmed Mansour.

It also stresses that the way that UAE authorities dealt with the Serbian journalist reflects what is happening with journalists, bloggers and human rights defenders in the country.

Skyline International calls on the United Nations to clarify its position on the process of preventing press coverage and to ensure that it does not happen again, and to refrain from holding any international conferences in countries with bad records of freedom of opinion, expression and journalistic work.