Attacks in Saudi Arabia Spark Debate
Tuesday June 24, 2003 7:09 AM
By FAIZA SALEH AMBAH
Associated Press Writer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2826869,00.html

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A foiled terror plot on
Islam's holiest city and suicide bombings in the Saudi
capital have shaken this deeply conservative kingdom,
but at the same time produced positive side effects in
sparking open debate and a freer press.

Despite the firing last month of a prominent newspaper
editor, the normally constrained Saudi press is back
covering news with a frankness that did not exist
before the May 12 Riyadh bombings that killed 34
people and the June 14 gun battles in Mecca that
authorities say killed five terrorists and two
policemen.

Long regarded as secretive, the Saudi government has
come under increasing pressure to open up and
introduce social and political reforms. In particular,
the United States has urged Saudi Arabia to do more to
curb Islamic militancy following the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks that were blamed on Saudi dissident Osama bin
Laden's al-Qaida group and carried out by 19 plane
hijackers - 15 of them Saudi.

Last month's attacks on Western residential housing
compounds in Riyadh, in which nine Americans and nine
Saudi suicide bombers were killed, increased the
pressure on Saudi authorities to work more openly to
stamp out terrorism both at home and abroad.

Such a climate, plus the stiff competition being
offered by non-Saudi TV stations and Internet sites,
has led to more aggressive coverage from Saudi
newspapers.

In an unusual move, local newspapers recently broke
the story of police fighting a gunbattle near Mecca's
main mosque with militants suspected of being al-Qaida
terrorists and possibly linked to the Riyadh suicide
bombings - a day before the government issued a
statement confirming the events.

``The press is currently pushing the envelope and
crossing red lines,'' said Wahib Ghorab,
editor-in-chief of Urdu News, a Saudi-owned,
Urdu-language paper.

``First, there are more news events to cover, and
second, when we lagged behind in our reporting, like
we did during the May 12 attacks, we lost our readers,
who watched the news on non-Saudi owned stations like
al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, and on Internet-web
sites.''

The fact that mainly Saudis have been implicated in
the attacks or arrested in subsequent crackdowns has
also had an impact.

``The roundup in Mecca has had a profound effect on
internal debate here. People realized the problem was
at home and had to be dealt with,'' said Gwen
Okruhlik, an American researcher living in and writing
a book on Saudi Arabia.

``There's a frankness (in the press) that didn't exist
before. It used to be that some issues were discussed
only in private. And now it's out in the open,''
Okruhlik added.

Since the Mecca raid, local papers, which are
privately owned but government guided, have been
regularly reporting shootouts, arrests and extensive
manhunts for suspects without waiting for government
approval or confirmation.

Papers have been publishing interviews with the
families of suspects and police and carrying pictures
of wounded victims, slain suspects and the sites of
shootouts and arrests.

And the public has noticed the difference.

``There's more credibility in the local papers now. I
don't have to search the Internet to see what's
happening, I can just read the local press,'' said
32-year-old restaurateur Yasser Bajnaid.

Housewife Abeer Hamza said it took ``terrorist acts''
for Saudis to admit their own ``weaknesses and discuss
them openly.''

``Now the papers are crowded with pictures, details,
comments and interviews. They've become much more
interesting,'' Hamza, 33, said.

But some suggest the changes may only be fleeting and
that Saudi authorities are releasing the pressure
valve only to appease the United States and pro-reform
critics at home.

``These are like waves of the sea. A wave of reform
and then a clampdown,'' said Mishari al-Zaidi, a
journalist who writes on Islamic affairs for the
Saudi-owned, London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

``This opening up happens after all major events; like
the Sept. 11 attacks, the Riyadh attacks and now the
events in Mecca. These waves are not real change. For
that to happen the Ministry of Information should be
either dismantled or completely reformed.''

Saudi's Information Ministry monitors the local and
foreign press and bars publications with articles
critical of the kingdom.

Other journalists are still wary after last month's
firing of Jamal Khashoggi, the al-Watan editor who
lost his job after his paper published articles
suggesting that Islamic fanaticism, long tolerated by
the ruling Al Saud family, led to terrorism.

One journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said Khashoggi's sacking was ``in the back of my mind
when I write'' and made him more careful as he did not
want to suffer the same fate.



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