Through the media, rulers and decision-makers feel the pulse of streets and understand public needs and reactions.
Over the years, the Saudi media have made headway with the popular support of the people. Since Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah ascended to the throne in August 2005, the Saudi press has become bolder enjoying further liberties with journalists and writers discussing sensitive issues that were hitherto considered taboo.
The Saudi press has been tackling highly sensitive social and moral issues in recent years with unprecedented freedom.
The media began pushing the limits when they took up the case of a Saudi girl from Qatif, who was sentenced to lashes after being raped by a group of men who had caught her and an unrelated man together in a car. The media explicitly covered the entire case, describing the hostility that the Qatif girl and her lawyer encountered in the legal system during the appeal process. The king was receptive to the media coverage that resulted in his direct intervention in the case and pardoning the woman.
A few years ago when Jeddah was hit by an acute water shortage during Ramadan, causing a lot of problems, the local media came down on the Ministry of Water and Electricity. In response, the king instructed the minister concerned to address the problem without delay. Consequently, the minister showed up in person at the Aziziya Water Distribution Center.
In another water-related issue, the public media as well as the social media played a big role in disseminating news of the devastating deluges that struck Jeddah in November 2009 and January 2011. It was the SMSs and the video clips that were uploaded on YouTube and Internet blogs that told the story as it unfolded. Citizen journalism was at its best as Netizens highlighted the trauma and destruction from different angles. Abdullah responsively reacted by appointing a ministerial committee to conduct an inquiry into the scandal and hold officials involved in the tragic events responsible.
Close on the heels of the Qatif girl episode, the Saudi media broke the story of a Saudi sex-bragger Mazen Abdul Jawad, whose claims on the LBC channel rocked society. The media, both print and electronic, were inundated with views and analyzes that addressed issues that were not previously discussed openly. The family and social structures and the role of the government all were debated on TV channels, newspapers and Internet forums. The trial of Abdul Jawad was also covered in depth, prompting the government to announce that all cases related to the media should be taken up by the Ministry of Culture and Information instead of judicial courts. Abdul Jawad’s lawyer accused the LBC of making changes to the original interview it had conducted with his client.
As more and more judicial cases were being reported in the media, the government added to the transparency of the courts by allowing media to cover trials of terror suspects. Earlier, such trials were held behind closed doors, and when the terror trials began in the Kingdom nobody expected that reporters would be allowed to enter the courtroom. The Justice Ministry allowed the media to cover the hearings as well as replies to the prosecutor’s charges when the trial began in the middle of this year. The press coverage brought to the limelight the fairness of the Kingdom’s judiciary and how the court dealt with high-profile criminals, accepting their request for lawyers and appointing lawyers at the expense of the ministry.
This year also saw newfound openness in covering global and regional issues — especially the people’s uprising that have brought about varied changes in the region. Saudi newspapers and channels have given wide coverage to “Arab Spring” revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria. Some Saudi journalists got opportunities to visit these countries to report about popular protests taking place in the region for the first time. Arab News’ Deputy Editor in Chief Somayya Jabarti was in Egypt’s Tahrir Square to report live the events taking place there. She described the rush of on-spot reporting as a unique experience, and was the only Saudi journalist present in Cairo during the January revolution. Arab News’ Michel Cousins has been in Tripoli and Benghazi reporting about the events unfolding in Libya.
Of late, the media is tackling the issue of women empowerment. Apart from writing about the need to create employment for 50 percent of Saudi work force, the media is tackling the issues of justice for women. Three issues are being discussed prominently. While the male guardian issue is discussed repeatedly by every media, it is the existing ban on women driving and women’s participation in municipal polls that is driving the debate. Newspapers published reports about women who drove braving the government ban, along with their pictures.
Prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is happy over the progress achieved by the media at the initiative of the king. “A couple of weeks ago Abdullah issued a circular instructing government departments to quickly respond to media criticisms. This circular is an important document that can regulate the relationship between government departments and the media,” said Khashoggi, general manager of Alarab news channel, an independent venture from Kingdom Holding Company that goes on air next year.
Officials of service organizations often ignore media queries related to various complaints, forcing the latter to carry the report without having both sides of the story. “Lately we have seen these departments complaining about such media reports. Abdullah wanted to put an end to this situation by encouraging government officials to speak to the media and tell the truth,” he said. Most government officials have started responding to media queries, resulting in a remarkable flow of information. A number of ministries and government departments have appointed spokesmen to speak to the media and explain their stand on various issues.
Khashoggi also pointed out that he had not seen any Saudi journalist in jail at least during the past 10 years. “This is more evidence of King Abdullah’s support for press freedom.” While praising the government’s initiative to license five private FM radio stations, he hoped the government would allow the private sector to establish satellite channels and other media ventures, especially in an era when people have easy access to the electronic media, diminishing government control. Because of existing restrictions, Alarab will not have a base in the Kingdom, but he is optimistic that the law will be changed in the near future. Alarab will have stations in the neighboring Gulf cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Doha.
Khashoggi believes that Saudi Arabia, one of the fast developing Asian countries, needs more press freedom to meet the hopes and aspirations of its people. He wants the government to take the media into confidence and consider them partners in the change. “I have heard top Saudi royals as saying that the media are the eyes of the government,” he said while highlighting the increasing role of media in social change.
Khashoggi, a well-known Arab political commentator, joined other Saudi journalists and intellectuals in criticizing the new media regulations introduced by the government earlier this year. “We, members of the Saudi Journalists Association, have expressed our concern over the new law and presented our observations to the information minister. We have objected to the huge penalties reaching as high as SR500,000 to be imposed on journalists,” he said and called for the revision of the law. The Kingdom announced in April a series of amendments to the media law that ban publishing materials damaging the reputation of the country’s religious authorities or harms national interests.
According to professor Abdulelah Saaty of King Abdulaziz University, the Kingdom has achieved “tremendous” progress in the area of press freedom during King Abdullah’s era. “As a result of this freedom, the media are playing a big role in society by discussing various issues openly and truthfully,” he told Arab News. He commended the media’s role in highlighting the Jeddah floods and bringing corrupt officials to justice.
Saaty, who is dean of the College of Business in Rabigh, said Saudi people are aspiring for more press freedom. “Our society is not like before. They are more open, more demanding and more educated. Moreover, they have got access to the electronic media, which bring to them all the information they want. Nobody can control the media like before,” he said and urged the authorities to revise the new press law in line with the Kingdom’s social and economic development and requirements.
As Saudis increasingly turn to satellite television, online news providers and social networking to follow current events, censorship targeting traditional media is increasingly becoming ineffective. “I haven’t noticed a pattern of these laws affecting how the media cover things,” said a blogger who regularly writes about politics, society and media. “And nowadays anything that doesn’t make its way to the mainstream media will make its way online,” the Reuters news agency quoted the blogger as saying.
Considering the spread of blogging, Twitter and a multitude of other ways to spread information, Saudi media have become more open and critical in recent years of both the government and the country’s rigid social mores. “I don’t think what has taken place in the last 10 years will be pulled back,” said Hussein Shobokshi, a columnist for the website of Al Arabiya channel. “Saudis, especially youths, are becoming extremely creative and entertaining in delivering their messages online.”
Twenty years ago, Saudi newspapers and TV channels were so worried about upsetting the government that they waited for days before reporting on Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Today, with an Internet penetration rate of 44 percent and satellite television available in most Saudi homes, such blanket control would be impossible. “The bar is being raised and the consumer, the viewer, the reader will not accept a lower bar,” said Shobokshi in a report carried by Reuters. Certainly, the growing freedom of the press will contribute greatly to the Kingdom’s overall progress while enhancing its international reputation.
