No doubt you have seen the mass graves in Iraq and listened to commentators trying to work out how old they are. Many were quite recent with some bodies still in their clothes — an indication that they had only been buried a few days before. Do not turn away in disgust; I am not going to write about those poor unfortunate Iraqis. What I am writing about is the mass grave in my office. In that grave there are no bodies but instead countless articles rejected by the editors of newspapers I write for. Wishing to avoid trouble or controversy, the editors simply refused to publish them.
Some of the articles are several years old while some are fairly recent, and there are one or two written only a week or so ago.
I asked myself what makes editors kill articles which address the general concerns of the public? The question is important in light of the relative degree of press freedom we now enjoy and also in light of the major social, political and economic transformations the country is experiencing.
The pair should make us join hands and work together to preserve what we have achieved. We need to listen to each other, to be tolerant and forgiving. We need to express our views and realize that though we may have different opinions, most of us have the same objective — serving our country.
Why then are ideas and views rejected when every official in this country encourages objective articles and wants to see a responsible media serving the people?
The problem in my view is that our media suffers from some kind of social phobia, a morbid fear that makes it shy and hesitant to express itself as it should. As psychological suffering intensifies, this could lead to more damage. Over the last few years, our media has made considerable progress but the signs of the old phobia are still there.
Just recently, readers realized that a local newspaper had suddenly and without explanation stopped carrying the name of its editor-in-chief. It was only after a London-based non-Saudi paper broke the news that the editor had been sacked that people understood what had happened! With the restructuring of the Ministry of Information and the cancellation of the Supreme Information Council, the responsibility of the ministry to help the media overcome its weakness has more than doubled.
Arab News From the Local Press 7 May 2003
