How Saudi Arabia repress reform
Saudi Arabia, Politics, 5/9/2006

Despite domestic and international pressure for reform, government and religious authorities in Saudi Arabia employ a wide array of behind-the-scenes controls to curtail coverage of sensitive religious and political news. Writers are routinely blacklisted, editors dismissed, and news blacked out, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today in a report.

Religious issues are the focus of the most intense press freedom battles in the kingdom, the organization found speaking about "Princes, Clerics, and Censors."

Enterprising Saudi journalists are challenging what they see as the monopolization of Saudi society by hard-line religious extremists, CPJ found.

The report says "Government officials dismiss editors, suspend or blacklist dissident writers, order news blackouts on controversial topics, and admonish independent columnists over their writings to deter undesirable criticism or to appease religious constituencies. The country’s conservative religious establishment acts as a powerful lobbying force against enterprising coverage of social, cultural, and religious matters. The multilayered religious sector includes official clerics, religious scholars, the religious police, radical revivalist preachers, and their followers. Compliant government-approved editors squelch controversial news, acquiesce to official pressures to tone down coverage, and silence critical voices."

The report says "Independent reporting on politics remains nearly absent from the Saudi press, CPJ’s analysis found. While newspapers occasionally criticize the performance of low-level government ministries or public institutions, critical coverage of the royal family, friendly foreign governments, rampant corruption, regional divisions, and oil revenue allocations remain off-limits. Debate over major foreign policy positions and the concerns of the country’s disenfranchised Shiite minority are also considered banned topics."

The report added "The fiercest press freedom battles, however, are being fought over coverage of religious issues. The most enterprising Saudi journalists have sought to challenge what they see as the monopolization of Saudi society by hard-line members of the religious establishment who promote extreme positions. Their coverage remains heavily circumscribed because of enormous pressure brought by religious clerics, preachers, activists, and their allies in the government. At the heart of this tension is the generations-old alliance between the ruling Al-Saud family and followers of the 18th-century cleric Muhammad Ibn Abdel Wahab, whose strict teachings form the basis of the country’s official Wahhabi doctrine. The modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia, founded in 1932, continues a political bargain forged centuries ago: The Al-Saud wield political power, guarantee security, and uphold the country’s Islamic character while the Wahhabi clergy provide spiritual authority and lend legitimacy to the Al-Saud’s rule. In practice, this give-and-take has meant ever-shifting margins of freedom for the press. Even when the government is inclined to allow greater press criticism, it has been quick to accommodate the concerns of religious constituencies."

Senior Middle East Program Coordinator Joel Campagna, the report's author, conducted two in-depth reporting trips to the kingdom, speaking to more than 80 reporters, writers, editors, and intellectuals in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dhahran, Dammam, and Qatif and meeting with officials from the interior and information ministries. Saudi journalists say press reform is urgently needed to confront serious domestic issues such as poverty, corruption, and terrorism.

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