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Saudi Arabia
MEDIA
In 1992 a total of ten daily newspapers, all privately owned,
were published in Saudi Arabia. Seven were printed in Arabic and
three in English. The most widely read Arabic dailies were Ar
Riyadh (circulation estimated at 140,000), published in Riyadh,
and Al Jazirah (circulation 90,000), published in Jiddah.
Smaller-circulation papers were published in both cities. The
cities of Ad Dammam, Mecca, and Medina also had daily newspapers.
All three English-language dailies were published in Jiddah. The
largest of these was Arab News with an estimated circulation
of 110,000. The smaller Saudi Gazette (circulation 17,400)
and Saudi News (circulation 5,000) were specialized publications
that emphasized economic news and press releases from the state-owned
Saudi Press Agency. In addition to the daily papers, there were
fourteen weekly magazines, of which eight were published in Arabic
and six in English, and twelve periodicals.
Although there was no prepublication censorship of Saudi newspapers,
editors understood that articles expressing opposition to the
government or its policies were unacceptable, and they thus exercised
self-censorship. The Ministry of Information effectively supervised
all periodicals through the Press Law of 1964. This law required
the formation of a fifteenmember committee to assume financial
and editorial responsibility for each privately owned newspaper.
The members of these committees had to be approved by the Ministry
of Information. In contrast to the local press, the foreign press
was heavily censored before being permitted into the kingdom.
The objective of the censors was not only to remove politically
sensitive materials but also to excise advertisements deemed offensive
to public morality.
Since 1990 several editors, reporters, and photojournalists have
been suspended, dismissed, fired outright, or detained by Saudi
security authorities for violating the unwritten press censorship
code. In February 1992, the respected editor in chief of the English-language
daily, Arab News, Khaled al Maeena, was fired for reproducing
an Associated Press wire service report that featured an interview
with the Egyptian cleric Shaykh Umar Abd ar Rahman, then residing
in exile in New Jersey. In December 1992, the editor in chief
of the Arabiclanguage daily An Nadwah also was fired
summarily after his paper featured an article about Islamic groups
in the kingdom.
As of 1991, the most recent year for which statistics were available,
there were an estimated 4.5 million television sets in Saudi Arabia
and an estimated 5 million radio receivers. One hundred twelve
television stations throughout the country broadcast both Arabic
and English programs. There were fortythree AM radio stations
and twenty-three FM stations. The Saudi Arabian Broadcasting Service
transmitted programs overseas in Arabic, Farsi, French, Indonesian,
Somali, Swahili, and Urdu.
Data as of December 1992
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