Saudi Gazette/Okaz report that official spokesmen for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice are being muzzled, or at least reined in. I suspect that the new head of the Commission isn’t happy with what he’s hearing coming from the spokesmen and he’s standing them down until his directives are fully understood. It’s certainly my impression that spokesmen, in the past, have taken offensively defensive positions whenever one questions actions of the religious police. Perhaps they will be taught a bit of moderation.

Powers of Hai’a spokesmen curbed
Muhammad Sa’eed Al-Zahrani

TAIF – Spokesmen for the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) have been ordered not to speak to the media without first consulting the organization’s General Presidency at its headquarters in Riyadh. The move, which sources say obliges spokesmen to refer enquiries from the media to the General Presidency and await a reply and warns against making direct statements to the press, comes a mere three months after the naming of 13 Hai’a spokesmen and assistants to represent Hai’a offices around the Kingdom.

It is not known whether the new procedure is a temporary or permanent measure, but Hai’a officials only last month completed a program in Taif to “improve spokesmen’s skills”. – Okaz/SG