Abdullah Al-Jamili

Al-Madinah newspaper

I was in an Arab city for a business conference with a number of businessmen from neighboring countries. At the conclusion of the conference, I was invited for a drink. I apologized and prepared to leave.



As I was making my way out, one of the businessmen said with a tinge of sarcasm, “Do not overreact simply because you are from Madinah. You guys in Madinah have surreptitious places to make liquor. This was in a report in one of the newspapers a few days back.”



I was extremely angry and I demanded that he prove it. Surfing the Net on his smart phone, the businessman showed me the news item. 



After I returned to Madinah, I went to the branch of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice office because they were the ones who had busted the liquor den. I was told that it was an isolated incident of a domestic helper who was making liquor, but the newspaper as usual exaggerated the incident.



Last week, an electronic newspaper published a story of an expatriate woman who was kidnapped, held in a private enclosure outside Madinah and repeatedly raped. This news was carried in a number of international newspapers and in newspapers in the country of the expatriate woman.



A number of writers in that country began attacking Saudi Arabia and helping fuel public anger against our country. This news, however, was later denied by the Madinah police and her consulate officials who had not received any report about such an incident.



We are not a perfect society and we too make mistakes. But what about media ethics? What about the journalists’ responsibility to verify the facts before publishing their reports? Who is holding the websites that publish such misleading reports or sensationalize isolated incidents accountable? This is not freedom of expression. This is a crime against the country and there should be stringent laws to protect society from such rumormongers.