Posted on 06/12/2003 6:58:40 AM PDT by Stultis
The perils of journalism in the Arab world
Journalists continue to suffer in the Arab world. The past and current year are full of examples of Arab journalists that are imprisoned, detained or banned. In every Arab country the heavy-handedness of the state remains visible. On May 27, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who had recently joined the Saudi daily Al-Watan, as editor in chief, became a victim. After a series of editorials and cartoons in Al-Watan criticizing religious clerics, he was fired on orders from the Information Ministry. Khashoggi say observers ignored the journalists’ rule for survival in the kingdom, of knowing how to play the game. “Jamal did things you don’t usually do here as editor in chief,” says former colleague and managing editor of Arab News, John Bradley. “He attacked the religious establishment openly and was dealing progressively with the issue of women, another area you don’t go into without serious subtlety.”
But Khashoggi is no ordinary Saudi journalist. He has reported from Sudan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait and covered a wide range of topics. He’s also one of the few, perhaps the only Saudi editor in chief, who made it to the top by working up the ladder and gaining genuine journalistic experience, according to Bradley. “He is an intelligent, conscientious journalist who cares deeply about the profession and deeply about his country. He’s also a very pious man.”
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks when Saudis entered an epoch of introspection, Khashoggi became a strong and outspoken advocate for tolerance and shunning extremism. When he landed his new job at Al-Watan, he wanted to introduce new ideas to the paper, the positive effects of globalization, of being part of the world elements “that were incorporated in the king’s speech at the Shura Council,” says Khashoggi. “There should be a modern and tolerant Saudi Arabia for modern people and I thought we were approaching (this) era.”
But when terrorism hit home May 12 and Saudis got a glimpse of the shocking realities of terrorism, Khashoggi was enraged and decided to do something constructive about it. Khashoggi and to a large extent Al-Watan criticized the religious clerics in the kingdom and that rubbed them the wrong way.
“The terrorist attacks blew up in my face somehow,” he says. “I was very angry. It’s a horrible attack against civilians, an attack that doesn’t agree or fit with any of our moral standings, whether Islamic, local or Bedouin. You just don’t go and kill innocent people, children and women and claim you are doing it on behalf of religion. I am a practicing Muslim, and I felt insulted.”
The disinclination of religious activists to condemn the attack antagonized him even more. “It took them five days to come out with a word and when they (did) it was a reluctant word,” says Khashoggi. “You don’t wait to issue a statement on a terrorist attack, which happened in the neighborhood, next door to you, right at home. They knew the facts, they knew who did it … and again they were talking about Sept. 11, 2001 conspiracy theories saying it couldn’t be those young people of jihad. I became furious … and started criticizing the fanaticism.”
Khashoggi’s firing is a blow to the mainstream part of the kingdom that had been calling for transparency and reform. The incident observers say, may slow the implementation of reforms and demoralize journalists. They point to a number of journalists who were forced to resign or were dismissed because of critical reports about the religious establishment, religious extremism, and the government. But Bradley says, “It’s not really contrary to the openness because there has been no unambiguous openness here,” adding: “What there’s been is two different groups vying for the upper hand in this reform debate, one group is the conservative Islamists, the other group is the reformists.”
The prospect of clashing with conservative Islamists has not deterred Khashoggi, a strong proponent of education and raising people’s awareness. He believes Saudis are afraid of reform because they believe if reform takes place it would be US or foreign imposed. “We need to debate with them. We need to educate them and say, ‘reform is a good thing, they reform in the most reformed countries, even in Sweden,’ ” he exclaims. Japan, he argues, is an important example because it’s kept its tradition, its values, and religion but at also adopted the Western sense of modernization and “To adopt the Western sense of modernization doesn’t necessarily make you lose your values as a Muslim nation,” he says.
A week after his dismissal Khashoggi’s morale was intact despite receiving hundreds of hate messages on his phone. Khashoggi will be an asset wherever he works, and disheartening as his experience was, it illustrates, as Bradley says, that although “reformists appeared to be in the ascendancy, the Islamists obviously are still very much in control. And when they flex their muscles the senior figures in the government listen.”
Massoud Derhally is a Jordanian-Palestinian journalist based in the Gulf. He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star
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