JEDDAH, 12 May 2004 — Many travelers arriving in Saudi Arabia have had a magazine, book or CD confiscated by customs. Likewise, people going to bookstores visit the magazine rack to find pages of periodicals either ripped out or blackened with permanent ink. Officially it is done to stop “offensive material” entering the Kingdom. In reality, the policy is a mess.
There is no consistency, no clear definition as to what is offensive or sensitive. What is offensive to one customs officer is acceptable to another. What is deemed “sensitive” seems to vary from one day to another at the whim of some official somewhere. It leaves many people puzzled.
The incoherence of such action was highlighted the other day for David, a UK expat returning to the Kingdom. “They took my copy of Thesiger’s “Arabian Sands”. But it’s for sale in Jarir Bookstores,” he told Arab News.
Evidently, one inspector may decide to let a particular book or magazine pass into the country, while another decides that the same book or magazine is “sensitive” and therefore not allowed.
“There has to be a warehouse somewhere in Riyadh where a load of guys with black markers, sit all day ripping out pages and blacking out pictures,” said Syed Hussein, an Indian manager working in Jeddah.
Complaints are heard about too much power combined with lack of knowledge or instructions in the hands of those men who decide what we read.
“They do not keep in touch with technology, because if they did, they would realize that the task is pointless. These people don’t know what they’re doing half the time. They need to be trained on what can and can’t be brought in. You come in one time with some inoffensive books and a couple of CDs and the customs officer looks at them and waves you through. The next time someone different grabs them. There’s no consistency,” said Carlo Trucchi, a businessman who regularly travels in and out of the Kingdom.
“In Saudi Arabia, we are moving toward greater freedom of information, especially with membership in the World Trade Organization just around the corner,” said Ahmad, a Saudi entrepreneur. “These men and women are behind the times still having difficulty deciding what we are allowed to see.” He says that is why books legally sold in the Kingdom’s bookstores are being confiscated at the airport.
Another expatriate, who asked to remain anonymous, recently arrived into the Kingdom with a book that was confiscated by officials. He said: “I had bought the book in Saudi Arabia and left the country with it. When I came back in, it was confiscated at the airport. So I just went to a bookshop and bought another copy the following day.”
Saudi Arabia has been going through many significant changes over the last few years that have greatly improved the quality of life, and the Ministry of Information has been praised for allowing more and more freedom in what can be written about and discussed in the local press and on television. Yet some incomprehensible practices remain.
The Internet was introduced to Saudi Arabia less than a decade ago and brought with it a window onto the world. Suddenly access to information and knowledge on virtually any subject became accessible at the touch of a button. For a while, only dial-up was available which allowed the blocking of many sites deemed inappropriate or sensitive, but when satellite Internet service arrived, there was no blocking it.
Satellite television made its debut in the Kingdom during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Originally it was reserved for the “connected” or wealthy. But as time went on more and more people had access to television channels and programming from all over the world. Satellite service providers such as Orbit and Showtime have set up shop in many of the Kingdom’s malls. Virtually every rooftop, even in Jeddah’s poorest neighborhoods, sprouted at least one dish, even though technically they remain illegal. Some houses have as many as six or seven.
“There is such influx of information from sources outside the Kingdom that there is no stopping it. In the past when something major occurred that may have been viewed as “sensitive” it was quickly swept under the carpet and no one here in Saudi Arabia would hear about it,” says Hassan, a Jeddah student. “But now the influx of information is uncontrollable. In fact, many people are looking to sources outside the Kingdom to find out what is happening in their own city.”
Arab News readers are familiar with the case of Rania Al-Baz, the Saudi television presenter who was beaten to within an inch of her life by her husband, who fractured 13 bones in her face. When this case was reported, it gained a great deal of local, national and international coverage because it finally brought to light a subject that had been considered taboo, with many victims hiding the fact that they were being beaten on a regular basis.
Al-Baz was written about in several international and local publications, she spoke to several radio stations all over the world and appeared on television many times, bruised and battered, to discuss the plight of abused women here. Newspapers and magazines hailed Saudi Arabia for breaking with tradition by allowing a light to be shed on such a topic. Abroad, Saudi newspapers and the authorities were praised for enabling such open discussion.
People magazine asked for an article about Rania. Yet when the issue appeared on newsstands in such places as Jarir Bookstores, the pages had been ripped out.
Here was a story that had had huge exposure all over the world as well as in Saudi Arabia. Members of the royal family were involved trying to help her. The story was no secret. Yet it was excised from the pages of People magazine.
