Your Royal Highness:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns your government's
harassment of Wajeha al-Huwaider, who writes for the Arabic-language
daily Al-Watan and the English-language daily Arab News.
CPJ sources confirmed that the Information Ministry issued directives
in late August effectively barring al-Huwaider from publishing her work
in Al-Watan and Arab News. This action comes in response
to a column that al-Huwaider published in late May that discussed some
Saudi citizens' disillusionment with their country and the peoples'
tendency to look to the United States for solutions to problems.
Al-Huwaider is the latest of a number of journalists whom the government
has barred from writing. In July, the Information Ministry banned Saudi
writer Hussein Shobokshi from writing his weekly column in the newspaper
Okaz, apparently because of an editorial that Shobokshi authored
about such sensitive topics as the rights of women to drive and of citizens
to vote.
Two months earlier, the government had removed Al Watan editor
Jamal Khashoggi from his post because of the paper's provocative editorial
stance against Islamic militancy in Saudi Arabia in the wake of the
May 12 suicide bombings in the capital, Riyadh, which killed more than
two dozen people.
Last year, CPJ documented a number of other examples of editors and
journalists who were forced to resign from their positions due to government
pressure. CPJ has recently received multiple unconfirmed reports of
other new cases.
As an independent organization of journalists dedicated to defending
press freedom worldwide, CPJ respectfully urges you to ensure that Wajeha
al-Huwaider and other Saudi journalists barred from their work are able
to resume their professional duties immediately, and that Saudi officials
cease all further forms of harassment of the media.
Thank you for your attention to these important matters. We await your
response.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper,
Executive Director
