TO think he's not a fucking teddy bear?

[Bunlicker]

^Friends and associates of Mr Matthew said they were astounded to hear that the genteel editor was under arrest. “He is the biggest teddy bear I know,” said one family friend.

Aibu to think this is shocking reporting?

Intentionally throwing a hammer at a person is a pretty clear indication of the man's character.

British newspaper editor 'admits he accidentally killed wife by throwing a hammer at her in their Dubai home' - The Telegraph
apple.news/ALsGp3iLhSV23LnKUEzkOFA

Should they not publish anything?

They could have factually reported surely: a man x has been detained - UAE is saying he change his story from intruders to him accidneatlly throwing hammer. He faces such and such a charge.

They could have gone with quotes about how shocked the ex-pat community is about whole thing.

They haven't done that - they have deliberatly chosen quotes saying how he's non threating like a teddy bare.

They haven't said anything about the murdered woman - she is just his wife - if they can find out his school and work history and write about it surely they could find a few pointer about who she was and odd sentence about that.

Who she was and her murder and treated very much as seondary events here - it's all about the man here.

This is a pattern noticable in reporting similar events which many on here find annoying and worrying.

Trollspoopglitter Actually, whilst that normally happens (thinking of all the sharia cases involving children here specifically), it is not usually the case if it's to cover up the behaviour of an Emirati ... Foreign males usually do get questioned and charged then if a woman can't be scapegoated.

You see now, why I think you need to be very fucking careful with Middle Eastern criminal cases in the early stages?

"He was EDTOR of the paper, so of course his Arabic must have been fluent in both spoken and written."

The paper, was an ENGLISH paper. It is the top English language paper in the Middle East. It is not an arabic language paper.

I think it is positive thing to report. This was outwardly a lovely man, genteel, a teddy bear, the sort of person no-one would ever believe would kill his wife with a hammer. And yet it appears he did.

The more people realise that someone with a lovely public persona can be an abusive cunt in private, the more women will be believed and supported.

I don't give a shit about lazy expats who refuse to learn the language of the country they're in after 30 years. He should have been fluent when he got there

Have you spent time in the UAE, Bun? The population of Dubai is about 90% expat and the vast majority of those don't speak Arabic, even after spending a long time there -- in some cases, obviously, this is because they are migrant construction workers who live and work in entirely Nepali/Urdu/Tamil-speaking environments, but also because English is the lingua franca. Also, even Emirati young people are no longer speaking fluent Gulf Arabic, and they are taught through English, and many kids speak English more easily - English is certainly the language you hear all round you. The government is trying to revive Arabic.

Hurtle is entirely right about the failures and corruption of the UAE legal system, and the desire of the Dubai authorities to promote Dubai as a safe tourist destination, so while it's very likely that the biased reporting of this 'domestic' murder is just another instance of the patriarchy (like the murder of Clodagh Hawe and her three sons by her 'pillar of the community/deputy headmaster' husband last year all the media coverage, and the funeral sermon of their shared funeral was about what a nice man he was, and he was buried in the same grave as the wife and sons he killed with a hatchet and knives) in action it is also just possible he's innocent.

The telegraph is not in charge of a middle eastern criminal case.

They are reporting (in exactly the same way they report local cases) a woman's murder and the arrest of her shitty husband.

TheEagle

Chilling. As is this story. He is not a teddy bear. And the person quoted is NOT a family friend. A family friend is a friend of the FAMILY, not an individual in said family.

"They could have gone with quotes about how shocked the ex-pat community is about whole thing. "

They should do this as the quotes come out - they are starting to come onto social media now, but literally, there was nothing this morning about this on social media from friends and the expat community in Dubai. Possibly because residents in Dubai are frightened to talk and actually share their feelings about what has happened.

The Police would have gone straight to the GN to get a story out before anything got leaked; that's just sadly how it happened. That story, and all the following press, will be influence on UAE politics.

There are now a few comments coming out on Facebook now from people other than ex-journalist colleagues.

"The telegraph is not in charge of a middle eastern criminal case."

Exactly. They only have access to the information via the 'heavily controlled' media coming out of the middle east at the moment. They can't report anything other than what has been reported there, at this stage (or at least at the time that article was written).

So the facts are thus:

Woman is killed due to blunt force trauma.
He claims burglars did it.
Then admits he 'accidentally threw a hammer'.

We know very little else but they have to eke out an article and for some reason, the focus is ALWAYS on the man. Why do we need to know about his education? Should be easy enough to find that out about Jane, no?

It's noted that they both played prominent parts in the UAE community - is there really so little known of what Jane did, of who her friends were, that it's better to note that her husband once worked for the Economist?

I'm sick of people bending over backwards to excuse the behaviour and actions of men - I mean individuals and papers.

Hurtle you say he's innocent until proven guilty - ok, fine. I'll accept that. Maybe he was coerced to give a false confession. Is there any indication of that in the available information? No. this is reporting of a story with the available facts, and once again, the murdered woman is treated like just the violent footnote in her husband's life.

I'm sick of it.

Have a read of this article. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-186527/Woman-jailed-murdering-husband.html

Not much about the murdered party but a lot of language there ensuring we know what a terrible person the murderer was. And she is, I'm not doubting that. But the language used for male perpetrators is different to females - you only have to look at things like Brock Turner 'promising swimmer' and Ched Evans 'footballer' like their rapist status is completely glossed over.

Gone on a bit of a rant there. Sorry.

"Is there any indication of that in the available information? No."

No, however this case is following very similar patterns to previous cases in that country where it has later been discovered that torture has been used to obtain a forced confession. And, with those cases, the information wasn't available immediately either.

It's likely that Mr Matthews has had any legal representation at this stage. When that happens, more will be published with regards to evidence and facts. Even if there was evidence of coercion and torture the middle eastern newspapers (ie. where all of the information is coming from) would not be able to publish that.

"Everything is so controlled that the Telegraph only have the UAE reports to go on - this happened yesterday. Should they not publish anything? Is that what you want? They can't say he killed her, because there has been no court case. They can't say why he killed her, because there has been no court case. "

Well, here's a suggestion (not, I would have thought, beyond the wit of man):

a) they could simply leave out the teddy bear comments until they know a bit more

b) they could fill out the space by commenting on what a shocking tragedy the murder of Mrs Matthew is- this seems pretty safe, because whichever way the court case goes, there is never going to be a situation where she is not the victim.

c) they could try and see if there isn't a single person available who has a word to say about Mrs Matthew- because b)

d) If they really, really needed to fill out the space (which they don't seem to, it's a short article), then they could explain a little about the legal system in Dubai and what happens next.

and e) yes, definitely leave out all the stuff on his education etc.

Well, here's a suggestion (not, I would have thought, beyond the wit of man):

a) they could simply leave out the teddy bear comments until they know a bit more - these were quoted by friends and colleagues, why should their feelings be left out when he's not been found guilty in a court? [Also, I think these comments are really important as if he is found guilty it does demonstrate that we don't know what goes on behind closed doors]

b) they could fill out the space by commenting on what a shocking tragedy the murder of Mrs Matthew is- this seems pretty safe, because whichever way the court case goes, there is never going to be a situation where she is not the victim. Agreed

c) they could try and see if there isn't a single person available who has a word to say about Mrs Matthew- because b) Little hard to do if the telegraph doesn't have a journalist in Dubai, and still unlikely to happen due to the fact this is such a recent case; something that will happen over the next few days

d) If they really, really needed to fill out the space (which they don't seem to, it's a short article), then they could explain a little about the legal system in Dubai and what happens next. I doubt it because it would be negative towards the UAE government and would prevent journalists from entering in the future

Just to correct one of my previous posts, the Gulf News did give a quote that wasn't focused on Francis.

"We pray to the Almighty that her soul rests in peace and that the family is given the strength and patience to overcome this very difficult situation.

"Gulf News’s thoughts and prayers are with the family. We request that the family be given the privacy they need to cope with their grief.”

They should do this as the quotes come out - they are starting to come onto social media now, but literally, there was nothing this morning about this on social media from friends and the expat community in Duba

They found biographical stuff out about the man, including school he attended, and quotes about him but its clearly it's impossible to do the same to the female in the story in same time frame?

Or search or ask for at least neutral quotes about the couple or if they couldn't find them leave quotes out?

I think it's much more likley there was a commonly seen bais in the reporting.

That doesn't mean I think this partiular man is guilty or that everything is fine and dandy with that countires justise system. I do think there means there are serious problems with reporting in some newpapers.

"They found biographical stuff out about the man, including school he attended, and quotes about him but its clearly it's impossible to do the same to the female in the story in same time frame?"

The Gulf news would have had this to hand as he worked at the newspaper. I think that's why that's been reported - they did also report his wedding data and residence address as well.

Hurtle, my questions again:

a) The reason to be cautious about this is because of the danger (if he does prove guilty) that it will be mixed up in the minds of the newspaper reading public with the common newspaper trope of "something must have driven him to it". It is the way we are encouraged to think in general (regardless of Mr M's guilt or innocence) as wife murderers as "poor him, he was such a nice man really". While it may not affect this trial, it affects how we think about these trials in general. Until we know for sure that Mr Mathew is innocent it might be worth just bearing that in mind.

c) Mrs Matthew might well have had acquaintances back in the UK or Europe. If all that is needed to give her husband a glowing character reference is someone who met him a few times at conferences [as per article], surely there must have been someone who had bumped into Mrs Matthew somewhere, too. Or is every single person she ever met currently in Dubai?

d) I see that they would need to be careful, but they might still be able to give some potential time frames or whatever, without voicing criticism. Or if that seems unfeasible, just let the article be shorter.

The impression I am getting here is that they weren't terribly interested in looking.

One thing I would really like to know is why the fuck it's taken a week for anyone to report this?

I have seen no articles last week about the death of a British woman in the Middle East - has anyone else?

I sometimes think there is a lot to be said for the old-fashioned Swedish system (now somewhat eroded) whereby a suspect could not be named by name until after the trial: as long as he had not been pronounced innocent or guilty he would have to be referred to as the 46yo or whatever.

Of course there were drawbacks, particularly in the case of serial offenders, as it prevented victims from coming forward.

But there were advantages too. I am sure it was designed to prevent witch-hunts and protect the families of those innocently accused. But it had the further advantage that nobody could lay it on thick about the accused's teddy-bearishness or use a description of his childhood to rub it home that he is One of Us.

Cory OK, I will try and explain how I am seeing things.

(a) I see this differently, I think it's very important these "teddy bear" comments stay if he is found guilty because it demonstrates that even the nicest men can be horrific abusers; I do see where you are coming from with terms of things getting lost and there must have been a "reason" for him to flip. I obviously don't think there has to be a reason; there are people who commit horrific abuse everyday yet go to work, or function in a community, display their personalities as love and light. I think this is the point that needs to come across if he is found guilty (particularly in an expat community where DV is a very taboo subject).

(c) I suspect this is to do with the fact it wasn't reported until last night - I have no idea if nobody reported this for six days or if I just didn't see any reports about it. Did the UAE government release the information relating to Mrs Matthews death last week? If not, why not? Where the British Government informed immediately?

(d) Yes, agree - they could have definitely looked at similar cases of premeditated murder to do this. Although they would have probably found huge differences between cases involving people of different nationalities. I think UAE nationals still get the opportunity to pay "blood money".

There was a beautiful article in the Guardian recently about two men whose father had killed their mother and sister. They were amazing young men whose mum had done a brilliant job of raising them in spite of difficult circumstances (Dad was controlling/financial abuser if I recall correctly).

The main thrust of the article centred around the way the media had reported it and how hurt the two sons felt that their mother and sister (and their lives, personalities, stories) were ignored in favour of a 'he was such a lovely family man, who would have believed he could do this' narrative about their father. It made what was already tragedy for them a million times worse. Why oh why do newspapers do this?

I largely agree with HurtleTheTurtle. I would add that even if he did understand the confession he allegedly signed it does not necessarily mean he is guilty. People do confess to crimes they did not commit. It is a common feature in miscarriages of justice.

Sorry, my post sounds weird! It was a beautiful article because the sons of the woman who had been murdered were so amazingly grounded and spoke so eloquently about their mother and sister and so honestly about what had happened. And because it was well-written and painted a dignified portrait of the victims instead of glorying in the horror of the story. Just to clarify!

monkeymamma Thanks for sharing (I get why you used the term beautiful), I'm going to try and find that article.