Sensational reporting can become a serious problem, threatening the whole of society, especially when it is seen as both a means and an end. Journalism that is responsible and professional must expose the serious threats that sensationalism can pose if it is allowed to prevail and become the dominant element in the media.
Many media organs around the world publish unrestrained and sensational news in order to attract readers and viewers. They do this by exaggerating actual events and often portraying the people concerned in a misleading way, fabricating and twisting facts and even using fraudulent tactics to justify the end.
Such practices give rise to confusion and may encourage the spread of corruption in society. In general, this kind of journalism has spread like the plague all over the world; fortunately, it is being met by serious action from the more rational, objective and balanced media who have themselves — let us be fair — had a slight case of the same disease.
The Kingdom is no longer immune from what I am talking about. Before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 the Kingdom was among the very few countries whose media did not resort to the kind of unrestrained and sensational reporting that is widespread in today’s world.
The Saudi print media, radio and television applied a moderate approach free of sensation. Our media had, to a large extent, been spared the damaging changes that the media in other parts of the world has experienced. What I mean was true in the past, and particularly when it came to reporting social and family problems. But nothing is now safe.
Since the Iraq war, the Saudi media has suffered from the same disease, with the result that the level of unrestrained and sensational reporting now found in our media is on the point of becoming a major source of concern and confusion.
I don’t want to single out any publications by name — my intention is to raise the alarm and jar people’s minds so they open their eyes to the dangers that this country could experience if the trend is allowed to continue. Just look at the following headlines typical of today’s media: Son shoots father; father assaults daughter; man kills entire family; three youths kidnap and rape girl; family discovers body of father who hanged himself; woman hangs herself using her abaya; woman stabs husband to death; and so on.
This is not even to mention the gruesome pictures that make the reader think that security in the country has completely collapsed, making everyone fear for their lives. The Ministry of Culture and Information, the media, teachers, experts and security agencies should take action now.
