Thursday, May 04, 2006

Apologies to users in the UAE

Ping! Ping! Two emails from users based in Dubai.

It seems our attempt to share photographs from the Travolution Summit, held last week, on the Flickr service has fallen foul of the authorities in the United Arab Emirates.

"We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates," said a strongly worded message when users tried to view our images.

One disappointed user emails us to say that the Emirates' telecoms company Etisalat blocks all access to Flickr.

Another emailer, with a somewhat lighter tone and a handy screen grab, writes: "Dig this page I received when trying to view the Summit Flickr photos from Dubai!"

Travolution can assure users in the UAE that our pictures of Brent Hoberman (Lastminute.com), Carol Dray (Thomas Cook), John McEwan (Advantage Travel Centres) et al are actually very pleasant indeed and we are sorry you are unable to see them!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

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