NEW YORK, 19.12.2019. The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday demanded an explanation from the United Arab Emirates about the decision to deny entry to Serbian investigative journalist Stevan Dojcinovic.
Dojcinovic was detained at the Abu Dhabi airport and was told that he had been blacklisted and was not allowed into the country to speak at a UN conference on corruption. He said later that the police told him that he had not been blacklisted by the UAE authorities but by some other government.
“The decision of the UAE authorities to deny entrance to Stevan Dojcinovic on the basis that he was “blacklisted” is concerning and the UAE must offer a better explanation,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Gulnoza Said wrote on her Twitter account.
"The decision of the United Arab Emirates' authorities to deny entrance to Stevan Dojcinovic on the basis that he was 'blacklisted' is concerning, and the #UAE must offer a better explanation." @StevanOCCRP @OCCRP @KRIKrs pic.twitter.com/vjlUsKA7yH
— Gulnoza Said (@gulnozas) December 18, 2019
She added that the decision raises questions about whether the UAE authorities wanted to host an open debate on corruption.