The Ethics and Legislation of the New Media Use in the United Arab Emirates Analytical Study of the Law “Combating IT Crimes"

Abstract

The study deals with an analytical reading (from an information and communication perspective) of the Law "Combating Information Technology Crimes" in the UAE. The law was passed in 2012 by Decree Law No: 5/2012, which was published in the Official Gazette No: 540, attached to the 42nd year, on 26/8/2012, and included amendments to the provisions of the law Federal No: (2) for the year 2006 establishing the Law "Combating Information Technology Crimes". The study adopts the method of content analysis of the materials covered by the law, based on two categories of analysis: • Form Category: for the detection of the legal materials governing the use of information technology, which included the following units of analysis: the number of articles and their contents, and the type of penalties imposed by law. • Content Category: and its evidence of the ethics of new media and communication in the UAE. The study reached the following results: 1. The UAE legislation on "Combating Information Technology Crimes" included 51 articles of law, and was widely separated in cybercrime and its penalties. 2. Most of the legal formulations in the "Combating Information Technology Crimes" system come in ways that push the user to commit to ethical and social responsibility while dealing with new media, and communication tools, or other information technology. 3. The Analytical reading of the articles of the "Combating Information Technology Crimes" Law in the United Arab Emirates has revealed three basic ethics for the use of these techniques from the media perspective: respect the intellectual property, respect the privacy and dignity of people, and respect the community values.