Times are about to get tough for writers and journalists in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Arab world. As Saudi Twitter user Hamza Kashghari has learned to his dismay, the powers that be are watching what people say. Newly empowered Islamist governments, like Egypt’s, are quite willing to use the power of the state to limit speech and expression and there is concern that it will become a weapon in resolving religious differences.
Saudi Gazette is reporting that publishers and editors are taking a big step back from supporting their own journalists. They have agreed to comply with the new press and publications law by directly docking the pay of writers whose work is found to be offensive. I can’t see how this will improve editor/writer relations or employee loyalty, but it does get the publishers off the hook for financial damages and, perhaps, from being shut down – temporarily or permanently – by the government. It certainly wouldn’t encourage me to become a journalist in the Kingdom. I do hope those Saudis now studying journalism are paying attention. They may wish to revise their career plans.
Media houses to dock journalists’ pay for press law violations
Omar Elmershedi | Saudi GazetteJEDDAH – A number of the Kingdom’s media houses are preparing to dock the pay of their journalists for any fines incurred for misreporting and defamation under the country’s newly-revised Press and Publications Law.
Reporters and opinion writers face fines of up to SR500,000 for violating the legislation.
Saudi Gazette has learned that media owners are redrafting contracts to allow them the legal right to deduct fines from the salaries of their staff.
The revised contract of a major Saudi publishing company now reads: “The first party in this contract (the publishing company President/Director-General), could with no legal consequences, deduct from the monthly pay of the author/writer (the second party in this contract), the necessary sum to pay for the financial fine imposed on him/her (the second party author/writer), by the appointed press committee of the Ministry of Culture and Information.”
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February:11:2012 - 08:48
wtf
I so want to add that to my correcting symbols http://www.elc.byu.edu/classes/buck/w_garden/classes/buck/correction.html
Why I hate being a teacher? Because teaching people who have never LEARNED to think is PAINFUL.
I will ask my students “how many of you think A B and C” Out of a class of thirty, only two or three will raise their hands. Then I will immediately ask “how many of you think D E F” and one will raise their hands. Then I will ask, “How many of you DON’T think” to which half the class finds amusing. Then I will ask “How many of you DON’T CARE?” Nobody finds that funny at ALL!
February:11:2012 - 11:29
Silent Assassin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibl88JIDQq8
Good Night
February:12:2012 - 21:05
What most unsettles me are the claims that the Interpol system was used to track Kashghari down. John, aren’t there supposed to be safeguards against using Interpol that way?
February:13:2012 - 08:45
@Solomon2: I have severe doubts that Interpol was used this way. First, it doesn’t send out ‘Red Notices’ very quickly. From what I’ve seen, they take months to generate. Second, yes, Interpol does have safeguards against misuse, starting with whether an internationally recognizable crime has been committed. My suspicion is that a journalist heard something like ‘international warrant’ and assumed ‘Interpol’. Instead, I think it likely that the Saudis checked outgoing flights, figured out where Kashghari was headed, then got on the phone with the Malaysian Embassy in Riyadh, which then contacted its home base. The Malaysians, who recognize blasphemy as a crime, were happy to go along with the Saudi request as it involved ‘only’ another Saudi, i.e., it was an ‘internal matter’ for which they could wash their hands.
It might have gone differently, of course…