‘We are proud of our achievements, and we look to the future’: UAE defence spokesperson highlights role of media in times of crisis

Dubai: The UAE's strong coordination between military institutions, leadership and national media played a critical role in maintaining public confidence during recent regional tensions, Brigadier General Staff Pilot AbdulNasir Al Humaidi, the official spokesperson of the UAE Ministry of Defence, said during the Emirati Media Forum on Monday. Speaking during a session titled ‘Guarding the skies, reassuring the nation’, Al Humaidi said the country's media ecosystem had proven its efficiency by providing timely, accurate information during the crisis. "We have a media ecosystem which is very efficient and at the beginning of the crisis we had our media teams and the first statement within a few hours of the conflict was very clear," he said. He also spoke about how the country’s leadership helped instil the confidence in people, referring to major events like the Dubai World Cup that continued uninterrupted. "Of course this is considered a great achievement, knowing that the military institutions are capable to secure the community and society while at the same time carrying out everyday functions," he said. Commenting on the exceptional response of the UAE’s Armed Forces to the recent conflict, he said: “Actually we attribute our success to our wise leadership that made us capable of handling this matter in such an exceptional way.” He added that the abilities the world witnessed today were the result of decades of planning by the UAE’s leadership, speaking about how this approach is visible in every aspect – from the focus on AI to other future technologies. “We make the future. We do not limit ourselves to anything. We are proud of our achievements, and we look to the future,” he said. As the official spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence, Al Humaidi was the face of military communication during the ongoing conflict and he spoke about the need to provide information in a transparent manner to people, to reassure them of their safety, while ensuring photos and videos are not disseminated that might provide information that benefits the enemy. "It is the right of the community to know about the events going on. At the same time, we have to maintain the secrecy for our work in the future. It is a two-edged sword,” he said. In this regard, he praised the role of the national media in helping provide accurate information and presenting the Emirati narrative to the world successfully. "Everybody knows who owns the narrative owns the war," he said. "We have seen efficiency in the Emirati media and the narrative has been communicated that the UAE is capable of defending their land, their nation and their residents." This clarity of communication, he said, was also reflected in the awareness among the general public, who associated the sound of airplanes in the sky with safety. "Even when people heard something in the air, they said that the military is working effectively.. It became a sound of stability, knowing the aeroplanes were in the air,” he said.