UAE blog blocked after analyzing impact of US financial crisis on UAE economy

The UAE ISPs blocked access to the Arabic blog Mujarad Ensan (Just a man) a few days after the blogger published a post sarcastically entitled "Lough with me and say: Our economy is in a good condition" in which he accused the UAE government of the lack of transparency in dealing with the current US economic crisis, and the local papers of lying about the real status of the local economy. The writer also accused government-owned real estate companies of publishing exaggerated information about business deals to create the impression that the local economy has not been negatively effective by the US financial crisis.

The blogger has in the past discussed sensitive issues such as media freedom, human rights, and political transparency in the UAE.

The UAE's filtering system continues to target political, social and sexual contents. Earlier this year, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority expanded the filtering regime to the Dubai free zones which in the past enjoyed unfettered access to the Internet.