Protests at UN climate talks, from ceasefire calls to detainees, see ‘shocking level of censorship’

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Activists designated Saturday a day of protest at the COP28 summit in Dubai. But the rules of the game in the tightly controlled United Arab Emirates meant sharp restrictions on what demonstrators could say, where they could walk and what their signs could portray. At times, the controls bordered on the absurd. A small group of demonstrators protesting the detention of activists — one from Egypt and two from the UAE — were not allowed to hold up signs bearing their names. A late afternoon demonstration of around 500 people, the largest seen at the climate conference, couldn’t go beyond the United Nations-governed Blue Zone in this autocratic nation. And their calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip couldn’t actually name the country involved.