Fore some time now our readers in the United Arab Emirates have been unable to read Hetq Online on the Internet. When they try to access the site they receive this message: "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."

How is it that Hetq no longer conforms to these values? In July of this year, Hetq started publishing the results of its yearlong investigation into the UAE sex trade. The articles described how girls from Armenian villages and towns were brought to UAE and sexually exploited. Hetq journalists unraveled an entire prostitution network and published names and photographs of people involved. We discovered that officials in the Dubai police and immigration department stand behind this business as well. We do not believe that the trafficking of women, their slavery and exploitation can fall under the rubric of the "religious, cultural, political and moral values" of people of United Arab Emirates.

The ban on our journal in the UAE proves once again that the government of that country does not allow freedom of speech and prefers to hide the reality of what goes on from its own people. Our journalists have discussed the issue of human trafficking with many residents of Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi. They all unanimously criticized their country's policy on the matter, and noted that their religion forbids "human trade", and sexual exploitation. We believe that the people of the UAE should know about women who are forced into sexual slavery, even more so as there are numerous cases in which locals have helped these women to return home.

We call on the government of the UAE to remove the ban and restore access to the Hetq website. We also ask international organizations to pressure the government of the UAE to stop filtering the Internet of any criticism of their country.

The Hetq Editorial Board