Arab Media & Society website, a product of the American University in Cairo’s Center for Electronic Journalism, translates this piece from the Saudi Elaph website. It concerns a meeting between the Saudi Minister of Information & Culture and top editors accompanying King Abdullah on his European tour. In addition to rumors about the future leadership of the Ministry, it also states that the editors were complaining about the limits on the freedom. While the piece seems eager to be seen as perhaps the next installment of the Bourne series, rumors are always interesting, if not always true.

Saudi chief editors reportedly meet minister, demand “more freedom”
Text of report by London-based, Saudi-owned Elaph website on 9 November
BBC Monitoring

[Report by Sayf al-Sani from Dubai: "The Information Minister Demanded Openness, So They Demanded More Freedom; Ilaf [Elaph] Infiltrates a Closed Meeting Between the Minister, Saudi Chief Editors”]

Iyad Madani, Saudi minister of information and culture, has discussed several issues pertaining to Saudi media in general with Saudi press chief editors in a closed meeting in Geneva.

Ilaf was able to infiltrate the meeting hall to obtain details, which went smoothly and calmly since the attendee and the host were the minister himself. It was noticed that everybody left the luxurious hotel where the minister was staying near his monarch King Abdallah after the meeting with the exception of Iyad Madani, who stayed at the hotel, whereas the others left to other hotels designated for the delegations accompanying the King.

Minister Iyad Madani, who has been haunted by expulsion and resignation rumours for months, made sure to dispel these rumours by talking about his future aspirations, which was an indirect way to convey the message. Talking about plans and future aspirations gave indirect signals of continuity and that he would be in his position for a long time, dismissing rumours about any real threat to his position.

Madani was talking surrounded by the members of his ministry, both those he has succeeded and those who will succeed him. According to rumours, the candidate set to succeed Madani at the Ministry of Information and Culture is a senior ambassador in the media and diplomacy. Travelling Riyadh rumours are seldom wrong.

…The most heated points of the meeting were represented in the complaints made by journalists about the freedom allowed to some television channels owned by the ministry such as Al-Ikhbariyah, and denied to many other press and media establishments. They said that freedom to the media and the press were like water and air to humans. They said the more freedom they had the more creativity and more impact the media would have on the society. On the other hand, they said although freedom could result in some irresponsible actions by some in the field of media and press, the disadvantages of working in an atmosphere that is not free far exceed the advantages of working in an open and free environment.