The Saudi Journalists Association has come under increasing scrutiny in recent times, and many have questioned whether the organization is performing the role expected of it when compared to other civil societies, and if, indeed, it has the authority to ensure its members' rights and respond to their demands. Here numerous persons prominent in the field of journalism speak frankly about the work of the SJA. Journalist Malik Al-Ahmed says the most noticeable thing about the SJA is its conditions for membership. “The commission has in place strict conditions making membership difficult and admitting only certain types of members,” Al-Ahmed says. “These sorts of strictures don't exist in similar organizations in the West. I am a member of several foreign organizations but I can't obtain membership in the SJA because I don't meet its requirements.” “Some people have become members through having friends in the right places, and others through mere persuasion,” he adds. “Anyone who wants to join should be permitted and there should be elections for the people to choose the best and most suitable candidates.” “The SJA has become a club for editors-in-chief more than an elected body that serves. It seems to spend more time playing a courtesy role and adopting an official line, and interested in dealing with formalities such as its land, building and offices than actually providing genuine services to journalists,” Al-Ahmed says. “The SJA needs to firstly stop paying lip-service and at least have a board with members who dedicate themselves to it in terms of time and interest rather than to their own publications. It requires people who don't represent journalistic organizations, as they would be better representatives. Contact with government and official bodies should be made easier and the commission should be able to obtain information more easily,” Al-Ahmed says. “The Ministry of Culture and Information should also lift its restraints to allow the necessary developments to occur, as is seen in advanced countries – countries that don't have information ministries – and unless that happens then the SJA will remain captive to the vicious circle of bureaucratic organizations and make only very slow progress.” Members without membership Eman Al-Uqeil, editor-in-chief of Al-Hayat magazine, is equally disappointed with the SJA. “We registered as members of the SJA and were strongly in support of it, but we haven't seen any tangible results from it as media workers. Even though I head the editorial staff of a monthly magazine and I have my own weekly column and work regularly with numerous television channels and radio stations, I haven't received any contact from the association and there have been no events held by it. In short, we are members without membership.” Al-Uqeil says she saw a wide division between journalists from the beginning. “There were conditions that, for example, you had to be a writer or journalist at a daily newspaper and other such things that caused discrimination between media people by singling some out from others despite everyone working in the same field,” she says. “We, as a monthly magazine, have no right to vote or run for election, which only serves to take away from membership status.” “SJA regulations are unclear, even to those in charge. There is also no discussion or canvassing of opinion, and the commission has become limited to a very small group. There is also hardly any female presence, and what there is is dominated by two or three journalists, with the rest just there to make up the numbers.” Al-Uqeil believes the SJA needs to widen its horizons if it wishes to become an organization with a meaningful role to include all journalists, writers and media workers. “It should not be restricted to one group at the expense of another, and there should be continual contact between members. Membership should have an effect on a number of rights, and everyone should be able to vote and run for election. Women also need to be given a voice.” “I hope the SJA can become a truly meaningful body,” Al-Uqeil says. “It is after all a civil organization, not a governmental one in which one sits around as if one is at work. We'd like to see the commission serve the journalistic and media community as happens through journalists' unions in many Arab and Western countries.” Part of wider problem Maysoun Al-Dakheel, a writer for Al-Watan daily newspaper, says there are no true civil organizations “with the exception of the cultural societies and some of the literary clubs that honor and promote the works of scientific, literary, and social figures.” Al-Dakheel says that there should be civil organizations not just for journalists, but for all professions if there is to be development of professional work. Such organizations, she says, provide support to the state rather than work against it, as they promote development. “These societies first appeared in the 1920s and 30s to defend workers' rights which came to the fore in the days of the industrial revolution, when their rights were being ignored. These days, now that the world has converged to become a small, universal village, their purposes have extended to embrace inclusion, development and exchanges of experience.” Al-Dakheel describes regulations proposed to the Shoura Council and nongovernmental organizations as “excellent”, and expected such a move to be a “great leap forward for society.” “Despite holes in the system,” she says, “the most important thing is that we get on with it, and we can address the holes later as we gather experience. The fact that we remain today without this system is doing us great damage and is slowing down the pace of progress and development.” Four years of nothing Nahid Indijani, editing manager of “Layalina” magazine in Jeddah, sees the SJA as virtually obsolete. “We don't hear from them at all except in a few limited media statements. It's as if it doesn't exist,” she says. “That is simply a reflection of its failing to get involved with media circles to handle journalists' causes in the Kingdom. More than four years have gone by and there's been nothing new worthy of mention. Those running the SJC have been in a position to make known their activities and provide motivation for joining the commission instead of stopping merely at the foundation stage. For me personally there is nothing to make me want to renew my involvement with the SJC. If it continues in this way the commission will probably end up having a virtually non-existent role as far as journalists are concerned.” “That doesn't negate the importance of the commission's existence and the need for it at this time,” Indijani continues, “it just needs to be more dynamic and more powerful. There needs to be a strong entity to support journalists, protect their rights and eliminate the hurdles that stand before them.” Manal Al-Shareef, head of the women's department at Al-Madina newspaper, describes the birth of the SJA as a “dream that remains a dream.” “We were spurred on at the beginning by the thought of an organization for journalists that would seek to guarantee our rights and help us confront challenges, but unfortunately the SJA stumbled at its very inception. That may be true of any beginning, and we hope that the situation can be put right in the future after the next elections, as we have seen a fallback in membership numbers which is not a good sign and reflects on the commission's inability to have an effect on the journalistic scene.” “I was not able to take part in the last election as I hadn't renewed my membership, but I intend to do so soon to support the continuance of the SJA, even if it has experienced a few hiccups in its beginnings.” Traditionalist fears Shoura Council member Mohammed Aal Zulfa recognizes the number of complaints concerning the situation of civil societies and a lack of existence or clarity. “As yet no decision has been issued on the subject of supporting civil societies. It is a matter for the Ministry of Social Affairs, which has promised to produce a law for them, and I hope it will see the light of day,” Zulfa says. “There are still those who have a fear of civil societies, some of them even afraid of the mere name, and they've taken to calling them ‘national societies', right at a time when we shouldn't be in fear of them as they will help society progress. There is contention from some conservatives in the Shoura Council who are not enthusiastic about the subject, and they appear to be afraid of increased public participation in the development of social awareness, which they are used to being the responsibility of a limited range of bodies. They fear new ideas and visions coming onto the scene.” “The dependence of the issue on the Ministry of Social Affairs represents a considerable hurdle to getting these societies up and running, as the ministry is burdened with extremely weighty concerns. The ministry also views these societies in a traditional fashion that knows nothing other than charities and consumer societies controlled by certain groups of people, whereas civil societies should be made up of lawyers, engineers, intellectuals and politicians and from every strata of society that wishes to serve society by setting up such organizations to play the greater role in preparing society for interaction at every stage of progress to serve society.” “I think that tying these organizations to the Ministry of Social Affairs will only restrict their work and they won't have the independence they require to competently perform their functions.” “We need an independent controlling body for these organizations, and in my opinion it should be a ministry called the Ministry of Social Development, as in the Kingdom we sorely need to concentrate on our understanding of social development in all areas of the country.” “The journalists' commission had a bizarre beginning. They immediately tied it to the information ministry, which has its own laws and censorship of books and culture and does not protect organizations or writers or journalists. So the journalists commission came on the scene with the opposite meaning to what it should have had, for it was handed over to traditionalists who they themselves fear a society for journalists. The commission was headed by traditionalists who we've known for forty years, as if they're saying, ‘we're here to protect our interests against the new tidal wave of demands for change and modernization'.” As to the draft law for national societies discussed by the Shoura Council at the end of last year and for which was formed the “Commission for National Societies”, but still remains to be issued, Zulfa says: “There has been no further news of this commission. There have been differences over who it should belong to and who should be in it. The idea for the scheme came from the government and disputes centered around its being tied to the highest authority, and we hope that the highest authority grants it protection and freedom, but some people fear a whirlpool of bureaucracy, so work priorities are getting delayed, as are discussions of cases and the drawing up of policies and plans, and the opening up of various fields in the Kingdom.”
