Dubai Media City (DMC), part of Dubai Holding, is a tax-free zone within Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

History and profile

The Dubai Media City was established and built in 2000 and inaugurated in January 2001 by the government of Dubai to boost UAE's media foothold. Since then, it has become a regional hub for media organizations including news agencies, publishing, online media, advertising, production, and broadcast facilities. The groundwork for infrastructure (such as fiber optic cables) was already in place for firms to set up easily and its visa and operational procedures are relaxed for firms operating within DMC. Dubai Media City has become a major hub for the media industry in the GCC and the Middle East, with more than 1,300 companies being registered under the Free Zone, from where they serve the entire region. It also houses the International Cricket Council, the governing body for the game of

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

in the world, which was previously situated in London up to 2005. On April 14, 2005, Irish vocal pop band Westlife held a concert for their The No 1's Tour supporting their album '' ...Allow Us to Be Frank''.

Censorship

On 16 November 2007, the Dubai government ordered Tecom (implemented by Du Samacom, by disabling their SDI and ASI streams) to shut down the Pakistani independent and private channels Geo News TV and ARY One World on the demand of the military regime of Pakistan led by General and President Pervez Musharraf. Later policy makers in Dubai permitted these channels to air their entertainment programs, but news, current affairs and political analysis were forbidden to be aired. Later, however, the conditions were removed but a marked difference has been observed in the coverage of Geo TV and ARY OneWorld. On 13 April 2008, du EITC - the second telecommunications operator in the UAE- announced that all of its traffic would be routed via the UAE's censorship proxy which blocks access to any content deemed 'inappropriate'. On January 30, 2008, an incident revealed the size of problem, when fibre optic cables between

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, Italy, and Alexandria, Egypt were said to have been damaged. There was a significant slowdown of communications. The UAE telecommunications company and DMC's internet service provider du EITC was one of the worst hit. Since du EITC has a monopoly in the Free Zones, customers had no alternative connectivity during the outage. On 19 December 2008 the three submarine cables between Italy and Egypt were damaged again, disrupting Internet and telephone communications between UAE and Europe, as reported by Bloomberg.

Towers

There are a total of 84 towers built or planned to be built in the Dubai Media City.

References

External links

*
Corporate Video on Dubai Media CityDubai Media City DirectoryDubai Media City on WikimapiaList of radio stations in Dubai and the UAERTA Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubai Media City Emirati companies established in 2000 Free-trade zones of the United Arab Emirates Media City Media City Media City Media City Media City Government-owned companies of the United Arab Emirates 2000 establishments in the United Arab Emirates

History and profile

Censorship

Towers

See also

References

External links