City 7 not closing, vows to sort wages

Mohi-Din BinHendi, owner of Dubai broadcaster City 7, acknowledged the station is having financial difficulties, but denied rumours the station is to shut, according to a report in The National.

The paper quoted BinHendi as saying his staff’s unpaid wages “will be taken care of by the end of the weekend”.

“We are not closing down, we are cutting costs and looking at all of our options,” he said, quoted in The National.

“As a result of the financial situation around the world we have to cut costs. Because of what we are facing in the financial world there now needs to be financial discipline. We are trying to put this into place and there is nothing wrong with that,” he added.

Rumours suggesting City 7 would close started earlier this month, after staff were not paid as normal. A post on Dubai Media Observer last week also suggested the station might be on its last legs – and was met with the usual tirade of abuse and excrement-slinging.

The National’s report does single out praise from station employees for City 7’s COO Ron Kabadia, who has apparently helped make the station profitable, and has been good at actually telling staff what’s going on – always an excellent feature, especially in hard times.