I don’t think anyone would like to see the Shoura Council turned into an entertainment on television. But the way in which the council news appear on television does not in my view reflect the aspirations of the country’s leadership.
The other day I watched with a measure of gloom as the newsreader read a series of decisions adopted by the council. It was a cold and lifeless broadcast lacking any enthusiasm. To tell the truth, I was not impressed by the resolutions, and they quickly faded from my memory. The one thing I was able to recall the next morning was that the Shoura members approved a number of bilateral agreements with some foreign countries. As far as I know such agreements used to come under the jurisdiction of the relevant ministries before the Shoura was established. That is how things should have remained.
I remember the broadcaster saying the council refused to pass one matter put to it because it did not win enough votes. Again, I missed the details and was unable to recall exactly what the matter was. I told myself I could get the information from the newspapers in the morning, but going over three papers I did not find a single story about the activities of Shoura. I asked myself if this was a failure on the part of the council to make its voice heard or whether it was reluctance on the part of the press to publish the news. What is it that prevents news about the Shoura from being broadcast other than in the official television bulletins?
There are many pressing issues that need to be discussed. I was genuinely enthusiastic about seeing these issues being put to public debate. In the course of economic and social developments, we should expect problems and obstacles, and these have to be discussed. Do the Shoura members really think that endorsing a bilateral cultural agreement with an African country will impress a journalist, or that approving the budget of the Grain Silos Corporation is important news on television?
— Arab News Local Press 11 October 2003
