Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, also the minister of Public Works stressed that the council is coordinating with the media zones on attracting regional and international media outlets to the positive environment which the UAE offers as part of its openness.

Sheikh Hamdan made his remarks as he received chief executive officer of TECOM Business Parks Dr. Amina Al Rustamani in Dubai on Wednesday.

At the meeting, Al Rustamani gave a presentation on Dubai's Media Free Zone and highlighted the facilities provided to media outlets to further enhance the UAE's positive image.

She also highlighted TECOM's compliance with the effective regulations and legislations to further boost business at the Media Free Zone.

Currently a number of newspapers and magazines in different languages have been printing from Media Free Zones in the country. Foreign newspapers in Arabic, English, Malayalam and Urdu have been re-printing from Dubai Free Zones, while a number of local and foreign magazines publish from different location of the country.

Interestingly, more than half-a-dozen Indian television channels operate from Dubai, and Malayalam channel, Asianet, has a special network for Middle East programs.

"The UAE is the major source of advertisement for the channel's GCC operations because most of the advertisement decisions happen here. There are more audience in Saudi Arabia, but the advertisement decisions are made in Dubai. These days we focus more on Gulf based stories, says EM Ashraf, associate editor of Kairali channel.

When it is about radio programs, there are around 48 FM and 25 AM radio stations in different languages. Besides Arabic and English, one can listen programs in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu and Tagalog.

Three FM and two AM stations cater to a million Keralites in the UAE, while half a dozen Hindi-Urdu radio stations cater millions of expatriates from Indian subcontinent.