On Saudi Press Freedoms (Updated)

Time can always refuse to not participate Michael.

They’ve probably been watching the U.S. MSM, with its propensity for aggravating any and all controversy in the guise of “reporting.”

I know it’s just a matter of semantics but There is no right to a free press in Saudi Arabia is technically inaccurate. Just because rights are routinely violated doesn’t mean they cease to exist. Otherwise they’d be ‘privleges’

priveleges…
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I can spell, I just can’t type.

privileges
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I guess I can’t spell either!

There’s anti-free press stuff going on here in the US, too:

The White House is actively supporting a new bill jointly sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman — called The Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009 — that literally has no purpose other than to allow the government to suppress any “photograph taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009 relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside of the United States.” As long as the Defense Secretary certifies — with no review possible — that disclosure would “endanger” American citizens or our troops, then the photographs can be suppressed even if FOIA requires disclosure. The certification lasts 3 years and can be renewed indefinitely. The Senate passed the bill as an amendment last week.

Just imagine if any other country did this. Imagine if a foreign government were accused of systematically torturing and otherwise brutally abusing detainees in its custody for years, and there was ample photographic evidence proving the extent and brutality of the abuse. Further imagine that the country’s judiciary — applying decades-old transparency laws — ruled that the government was legally required to make that evidence public. But in response, that country’s President demanded that those transparency laws be retroactively changed for no reason other than to explicitly empower him to keep the photographic evidence suppressed, and a compliant Congress then immediately passed a new law empowering the President to suppress that evidence. What kind of a country passes a law that has no purpose other than to empower its leader to suppress evidence of the torture it inflicted on people? Read the language of the bill; it doesn’t even hide the fact that its only objective is to empower the President to conceal evidence of war crimes.

PD:

At least you can think. Meanwhile – two words: dictation software.

Elvis: I agree this is just wrong.

By the way is anyone in the MSM going to discuss and alert the american people about this proposed law. Other than Glenn?

So… is this different from previous trips under previous administrations? That would be a meaningful bit of context to add, wouldn’t it?

I know it’s not your beat, Michael, but the press isn’t so free in Israel either. Amira Hess of Ha’aretz was arrested in May for going to Gaza.

“is this different from previous trips under previous administrations? That would be a meaningful bit of context to add, wouldn’t it?”
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In my opinion free press members shouldn’t go. Putting up a blog post or writing a lame article on this issue while dutifully getting on the plane and completely complying with the restrictions accomplishes nothing.

Michael Scherer:
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Is this hotel-arrest policy because of Saudi press restrictions, or because the Administration and the Saudis know that many US journalists traveling with the President are women, and would be subject to Saudi gender apartheid laws, and so both parties wish to avoid any unpleasantness arising from this Wahhabi apartheid’s direct exposure to the US press corps?

gysgt:
Perhaps. But my point is that Mikey is identifying this as “by agreement between the Obama Administration and the Saudi government.”

These are standard press restrictions that were also in place during the last administration. There is nothing nefarious about it. Please inquire of your more experienced colleagues whether this is standard procedure when the WH is visiting Saudi Arabia (it is), and then please clarify that to your loyal readers, Michael. You are giving them a wrong impression and causing rampant, unwarranted speculation. And I know you don’t want that, and neither do I.

jay ell ay,
tee aitch ex & ell oh ell.

James, The idea of press restrictions is not knew. But several former Time colleagues who have traveled with past Presidents to Saudi Arabia have had freedom of movement in the past.

Sound like you need a Saudi Visa, Michael. What’s stopping you?

“Not knew?
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There’s a lot more than the Interwebz behind the decline of print journalism.

yep. new. and should not have written past twice. multitasking. one of the problems for this new digital age. much more to do. just as many hours.

The Saudi governmemt is luck they have oil. They’d be regarded as just another repressive regime crying out for liberation and d3mocracy by our right wing if they didn’t.

Saudi restrictions are no surprise. We had all kinds of problems when our forces were stationed there. Any journalist who finds the condition unacceptable should avoid the trip. The days are gone when we saw Mrs Greenspan butting heads with Sudanese security and forcing her way into a meeting between our SOS (Rice) and their President in Khartoum..

Paul Dirks Says: ” I know it’s just a matter of semantics ..”

No worry. We revel in it. And duplicity too.
When all the cars were black, the car maker would tell the complaining public that they can have any color they wish - RIGHT - as long as it is black - REALITY.

In a land teeming with an over-abundance of job seekers where the ruling elite own the MSM we can talk about “free press” where the employees in the MSM (like MS) who are in dire need of a job – and desperately seeking to keep one – would reflexively observe “self-censorship”.
[In short, don't write in support of "Islam" if your employer is rabidly "anti-Islam". [I know that the previous sentence would be even more compelling if I use the words "Israel" and "anti-semitic."]]

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” .. authorities have the right, under law, to “prevent anything that can lead to disunity, sedition, and separation,” from being published. ..”

If we do it, it is all good. If they do the same – a million curses on them.
[MS may not privately embrace the self-censorship - but he has a mouth to feed; a body to clothe and shelter; and perhaps he has a few other dependent mouths and bodies to worry about too. [Not forgetting an ego to stroke. And a veneer of faux intellectual excellence and sophistication to banish through access to the MSM..]
So, Bring on the self-censorship! And does it matter whether it comes for a government or the owners of the MSM – the ruling elite – that LARGELY ‘control’ the government?]

I need a grammar check as well as spellcheck.

And trust the impish god of the internet to forget to format my post properly. And trust the same impish god of the MSM to insert among POTUS’s traveling press one whose name rhymes with “Michelle”.

Now how about rhyming “Hussein” or “Obama”?

MS: you might to talk to MoDo of the NYT and let her tell you how she was nearly pulled in by the Religious Police while on a late night stroll in a Riyadh shopping mall accompanied by Adel Jubair, foreign policy advisor and popular cable talking head for the Saudi King Fahd.

You see this just does not make any sense to me. The press is not free in a lot of places like Myanmar for example. The reporters there are reporting without disclosing their names or locations. However, they are not embedded with a U.S. Government agency either. Here the press is paying their own way to embed as the WH press and follow whatever restriction are offered by the Saudi and U.S. governments while being used as a prop for photo ops and BS background briefings.

sevenoaks07 Says: “nearly pulled in by the Religious Police”

Does that mean that she was not pulled in?

I guess that OUR police would pull in someone who walks our streets naked – regardless of any religious or cultural reasons the individual may have. Or the domestic partners who would ‘make love’ in broad daylight on a busy street by the school yard.

Michael,
What I wrote was, those restrictions in Saudi Arabia were in place for White House Press Corp during the last administration. They were. Ask your fellow WHPC. Your “several Time colleagues” traveling with “past Presidents” is non-responsive. Vague, and non-responsive. It seems like you are trying to make more of this than there is, like a petulent bratty little kid. It is SOP. Ask Knoller. Ask Jennifer. Ask April. Ask Silva how it was to travel with Cheney. And quit being a brat. You’re a newbie and don’t know the ropes, dude.

MS: You will be an alien in a foreign country. You are subject to their laws. Saudi Arabia has waived their visa requirements for the limited purpose of allowing you to cover Obama’s visit.
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If you don’t like the rules (a) stay home, (b) ask one of the Time correspondents who have visas to be Saudi Arabia to cover any other story you think is important, (c) get arrested and meet and interview some political prisoners.
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Enjoy the trip!

MS: Here’s a question. Do you think that a journalist from Saudi Arabia can visit the U.S. without a Visa (and presumably much of a background check) as part of a State visit and then travel around the U.S. with impunity? Me neither.
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Better yet, if Ahmedinejad travels to the U.N., do you think that Iranian journalists (whatever that means) can come to New York without a visa and then go wherever they feel like, covering whatever story they want? Me neither.
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Here’s an interesting story better yet Iran, story from 2004:

Last week a British reporter was detained by immigration officials and then expelled from the United States for traveling here without knowing that the visa rules had changed. More precisely, she didn’t know that a decades-old unenforced rule was suddenly being enforced against friendly tourists long accustomed to entering the country without a visa at all. Elena Lappin, a freelance journalist from the United Kingdom (who has written for Slate), was stopped at Los Angeles International Airport, subjected to a body search, handcuffed, frog-marched through the airport, and then held in a cell at a detention center overnight—all because she dared travel to the United States without a special journalist visa.

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Oops. Maybe Dick Cheney is now working as a national security consultant to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Just to be clear, in the above story, the journalist who was detained and expelled was a British journalist who would not be required to have a visa to travel to the U.S. for less than 90 days for either pleasure or any other business. The visa requirement applies only to foreign journalists. This is right here in the U.S.

cfukura: The Religious Police are an over-zealous bunch of louts. Mr Jubair had to tell them who he was, and why he was accompanying a guest of the Kingdom, a woman journalist (is she one???) not related to him late at night in a mall. His political pull cancelled out the zealotry. It ended up in a stand off.

BTW, it seems that one of the mainstream media’s favorites, Pat Buchanan, has a bit of explaining to do regarding one of his employees.
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Marcus Epstein is the executive director of The American Cause–Buchanan’s anti-immigration organization. This is from the US attorney’s filing:
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“On July 7, 2007, at approximately 7:15 p.m. at Jefferson and M Street, Northwest, in Washington, D.C., defendant was walking down the street making offensive remarks when he encountered the complainant, Ms. [REDACTED], who is African-American. The defendant uttered, “Ni66er,” as he delivered a karate chop to Ms. [REDACTED]‘s head.”
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Epstein pled guilty and will be sentenced on July 8. You can read more about it here: http://washingtonindependent.com/45075/tom-tancredo-and-the-n-word
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The Buchanans have known about this for TWO YEARS. Yet the let a guy who walks down the street assaulting women and calling them racial epithets remain in a leadership position of one of their organizations.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/bay-buchanan-epstein-showed-tremendous-courage-turned-his-life-around.php?ref=fpblg
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So before the US press starts moaning about the lack of press freedoms in Saudi Arabia, maybe they should spend some more time exercising some of their freedoms here and start reporting on the type of people they elevate into the role of “respected elder.”
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In fact, I am eagerly awaiting Olbermann’s Special Comment on racial and religious hatred tonight. I’m sure that his colleague, Pat Buchanan, will be singled out. And certainly Rachel Maddow will have something to say about this, right? Perhaps she should compare and contrast Pat Buchanan bemoaning Sotomayor’s alleged racism while noting that he has an someone who works for him who pled guilty to assaulting someone and dropping the n-word.
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Again, if the press in the US wants to complain about restrictions on press freedom in other countries, they would be advised to start exercising some of that freedom here.

Saudi citizens have very few rights. In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal to not be a Muslim, for starters. Why do we condemn other nations for repressing their citizens but at the same time do business with Saudi Arabia? Hmmm!!!! Freaking ridiculous.
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On the same note about revoking freedom of the press, any new news on the fairness doctrine?

and choska that is bad but Olbermann is a crybaby. He’s just a liberal version of Bill O’Reilly. Well, sort of.

James, LA: You callin me vague and unresponsive? Dude? I mean, Dude. Bush went to Saudi Arabia in January and May of 2008. One of my TIME colleagues went both times with the White House pool. On both trips, last year, he tells me he had time to leave the hotel and tour around the city, free of any threat of arrest. Feel free to phone up someone twice my age if you want to confirm the facts. And apologies if this comment comes off as petulant and bratty. It’s what I got, dude.

MS of Arabia (dude), hope you have a good trip on the sky camel to the desolate land of our close nomad frieds.
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Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, which is anything which may result in beheading or hacking off of appendages. I guess that covers anything fun. Beyond that, have fun.

frieds means friends, but really I like frieds.

Aside from Michael’s futile quest to find Riyadh’s red-light district, why is it that Chavez’ Venezuela or Putin’s Russia or Hu’s China are the nations most vigorously condemned for their lack of a free press? While “The Kingdom” raises only the above whimper? I know, I know, I’m obtuse–I’ve never been able to get my head around why we coddle one repressive dictator, calling him our bosom buddy, while we condemn another.
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And really Mike, isn’t your gig to go to his speech, write down what he says, type it up, and presto, head for the bar? Not quite as romantic as Graham Greene, but not a bad gig brah. What would you have done otherwise, other than hit the mkts. for souvenirs?

@apollyon07: When has Olbermann sent his producer out to harass people? When has Olbermann compared anyone to a Nazi? When has Olbermann been sued for sexual harassment?
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Olbermann is a lot of things, but saying he is a liberal version of O’Reilly is ludicrous.

MS: Regardless of whether the policy has or hasn’t changed, your thesis (i.e. that the Saudi-W.H. agreement on restricting the movements of the press corps reflects a lack of press freedom in Saudi Arabia) is flat-out silly.

Dude.

sqr1, no thesis. the first graf is meant to provide context.

Michael Scherer:
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Presuming that this is a special trip, in which arbitrarily enforced rules suddenly apply, any thoughts on why this might be the case, and/or why the WH is playing along (if it’s not actually the party trying to use the situation to keep the press locked down)?
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Dude?

Ah, “The Kingdom”!
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“… we happily ignore that they perpetuate more atrocities on their own citizens — especially the beaten and decimated women — than anyone since the Taliban, or Saddam, or Kim Jong Il. We happily ignore that their “kingdom” is one of the most corrupt and oppressive in the world. We happily turn away from how, more than any other nation, Saudi Arabia is providing the world with more extremist martyrs willing to blow themselves up for Allah, just to make their outrage heard.
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And can we forget how the Saudis are deeply and happily involved with the Carlyle Group, a nasty clan of military-lovin’ fear-suckin’ venture capitalists overseen by none other that bastion of WASP mafia love, George Bush Sr.? Always a nice, bitter footnote.
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Oh, I know. I don’t really understand foreign policy. I don’t really comprehend all the nuances and the power plays and the true color of the political sleaze involved. Neither, of course, do you. We are not supposed to understand. We are not supposed to look. We are told it is all just fabulously complicated and slippery and by the way we have no right to judge nasty oppressive Saudi culture. Which is, you know, true enough.”
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Mark Morford from a classic piece
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/05/20/notes052005.DTL&nl=fix

The Obama (default US Gov’t position) regarding these tyrants (as opposed to those other tyrants over there):
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Michael, this is your mother speaking. Be sure to wear new socks with no holes in them when you enter the mosque. Remember what an embarassment our war hero Mr. Wofowitz was when he entered sacred ground.
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And for God’s sake, wear clean underwear in case you are beheaded.
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A nice icebreaker with the religious people would be to point out our own recent experience with killing Dr. Tiller in the name of religion, and virgins in heaven (or little boys, whatever your preference). You hear me, Michael? Behave, act right. We pray to God and Allah (that is God, too) that you will.

And Mike, read Kristof–this may make you think twice about leaving the Riyadh Hilton:
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/opinion/31kristof.html?_r=1

MS: Take Amy and put a couple of hundred of the pocket Gideon Bibles in a suitcase with her name on it. She’ll think it’s hilarious. If she denies that it’s hers, remind her that lying is a sin. Do it all with a straight face. Let us know what happens.

Clean underwear? Hell, what about underwear period? The lacey crotchless ones are fun if you get searched.

Oregon JC:
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Prof. Juan Cole (someone whom I respect greatly) wrote a book called “Engaging the Muslim World”. When he came to the Virtually Speaking Amphitheater in Second Life, I posted this criticism of his arguments in support of further US engagement with the Saudis in advance of his appearance.
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It’s weird sounding more leftist than the rest of the audience at Virtually Speaking, let me tell you.

MS: Take Amy…
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Yes…Please take Amy. Tell her that the Obama Administration has a special mission for her to fulfill in Saudi Arabia as a sort of undercover diplomatic operative, but that this job requires that she abstain from any posts at Swampland, lest her identity be compromised. Tell her you’re uncertain as to the end date of this crucial assignment, and that the President knows that he can count on her.
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Please, please, for God’s sake, take Amy.

[...] (Swampland) [...]

OK, the sh!ts and giggles are coming fast & furious now. Sacred’s gideons, Stu’s delightful support for an all-star tag team (1 Christian diplo-missionary + 1 free press zealot). There’s a youtube short film in the making there Michael–I don’t know if The Kingdom can survive your united efforts.
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And, Stuart, be most careful lest we radical Chomsky-ites take you for one of us!

michaelscherer Says: ” .. free of any threat of arrest. ..”

I such vigilance leads to a gentler nation freed of rapists, murderers and atheist, we may consider it .. (only to dismiss it, mind you: Those nasty people have ‘rights’ – especially if they have oodles of money and connections, right?)

” .. It’s what I got, dude. ..”

OMG! And all the while I thought that he is engaging in advanced psyche war directed at the unwary Americans! I just about asked what he meant by “free press” !

[...] Michael Scherer of Time: The Saudi government is permitting journalists accompanying President Obama entry into the country [...]

Oregon JC:
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You Chomsky-ites?
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Perhaps you can explain to me then why it seems in this paper that the author goes out of his way to associate Chomsky with Descartes and Leibniz (and opposed to the empiricists), instead of with Kant and his a priori concepts (as would be fairly obvious, at least to me)?

[...] asked about "disgrace" comment. State Dept. warns against reporting in Saudi [...]

“Perhaps you can explain to me then why it seems in this paper that the author goes out of his way to associate Chomsky with Descartes and Leibniz (and opposed to the empiricists), instead of with Kant and his a priori concepts (as would be fairly obvious, at least to me)?”
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And a sudden end comes to the giggling sh!ts! Short answer, “no.” I’m a Chomsky-ite (political) not a Chomskyan (linguistic). Ask me about Terry Eagleton or Edward Said and I can give you a pretty compelling description of their philosophies/lit. theory, but linguistics, I’m wholly out of my element there. No part of my formal education and although intriguing I’ve never ventured beyond the discipline’s wading pool.
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In fact, I only came into full contact with Chomsky’s thought (political that is) after leaving the academy behind. Mind you, he is, however, a one-man interdisciplinary wrecking crew. An example from my own field:
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http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/1996—-.htm
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‘Literature is an entirely different matter. We learn from literature as we learn from life; no one knows how, but it surely happens. In fact, most of what we know about things that matter comes from such sources, surely not from considered rational inquiry (science), which sometimes reaches unparalleled depths of profundity, but has a rather narrow scope — a product, I assume, of special properties of human cognitive structure.’ So there is something outside of the social sciences-exact sciences spectrum, and sitting as it does on the margins of our understanding, and describing as it does the central element of our nature (creativity), it could in fact be deemed critically important. Indeed, if the minimalist programme postulations are true, then creative uses of language may be at the centre of our own humanity. So ‘literature is not a social science. If literature is illuminating, that doesn’t tell us anything about the power and value of social science.’

“In fact, most of what we know about things that matter comes from such sources”
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Of course, I’d add film/other arts to “such sources” i.e. assorted creative “texts.” Thus my firm conviction that Steinbeck (Grapes) has far more of value to say about exploitation of the working class in America than any journalist. Or Matewan. That Graham Greene (Quiet Amer.) or Orwell have more to offer in discussions of empire, war and totalitarian states than a 1000 Joe Kleins. That Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian) illustrates the American west better than any historian ever has/will. The list goes on and on.

For those following from home, a recap:
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From Michael’s concern about being able to see the hi-lited spots in his “Lonely Planet Saudi Arabia” to…
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the US being the Saudi b@tch writ large to…
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Amy’s suitcase of gideons to…
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Chomsky and Descartes to…
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Cormac McCarthy
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How could we complete this edition of 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon?
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Cormac (to my eternal shame) appeared on Oprah–as has KB. That’s a wrap folks. Off to work.

jcapan Says:
” .. That’s a wrap folks. Off to work. ..”

“WORK”! How vulgar!

“WORK”! How vulgar!
That’s why I chose a career of government service. Work. It even sounds filthy.

Foreign journos going to Saudi may still have minders, though I have not heard on restrictions of places to visit recently. Of course, there are plenty of press restrictions in the kingdom: editors in chief appointed by the Minister of Information, and lots and lots of self-censorship (never mention the arrest of hundreds of Shia recently in the Eastern Province or cover the fact that the promise that trials of suspected terrorists currently underway to open them to the public remain unfulfilled. The trials are summary, and closed, no lawyer or family even).

But here’s a good one: the religious police, having suffered image setbacks recently following publication of their outrages, has said it would sue newspapers who publish stories of them harassing and beating people!

Have a good trip!
Christoph / senior research on Saudi Arabia-Human Rights Watch

[...] de publicar a absurda condição, Scherer conta ter recebido um desmentido oficial, e a garantia de que todas as condições (só precisamos de uma, liberdade) serão dadas aos [...]

[...] Time Magazine runs a piece online about how the US State Department has cautioned the White House Press Corps, traveling with Pres. Obama to Riyadh tomorrow, that they are expected to report on the President’s visit, not any other stories that may come their way. On Saudi Press Freedoms [...]

[...] of coverage of the POTUS visit. Those who do so risk arrest and detention by Saudi authorities. (more…) SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "This is “Change”", url: [...]

[...] via On Saudi Press Freedoms – Swampland – TIME.com [...]

[...] Michael Scherer, who will be accompanying President Obama on his trip to Saudi Arabia Tuesday, reports that he has been warned by the U.S. State Department that, while in Saudi Arabia, he is not to report on anything except the President’s visit [...]