Press
Saudi and foreign newspapers and magazines, including advertising, are strictly controlled by censorship officials to remove content that is offensive. Newspapers and magazines must not offend or criticize the Wahabi Muslims and specially The Royal family, Wahabi government officials or government version of Islamic morality.
Censorship of foreign newspapers and magazines tends to focus on content of sexual nature. Nudity and pornography are illegal in the kingdom and this can extend to inking out public displays or affection like hugging and kissing, the uncovered arms and legs of women and men or anything deemed to be promoting sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication or homosexuality. Even advertising for driving classes for women is banned.
In 1994, all women magazines were banned by the ministry of information. This move was considered to be related to the pressures of the religious establishment or ulema. After this ban, nineteen of total magazines (twenty-four) were closed down since their major revenue was advertisement earnings paid by the Saudi companies.
Read more about this topic: Censorship In Saudi Arabia
Famous quotes containing the word press:
“Ah stay, my heart, the weight
of lovers, of loneliness
drowns me,
alas that their very names
so press to break my heart
with heart-sick weariness.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat,
The mist in my face,
When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
I am nearing the place,
The power of the night, the press of the storm,
The post of the foe;
Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
Yet the strong man must go:”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“The law isn’t justice. It’s a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)