Media in Saudi Arabia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Media in Saudi-Arabian Arabia - screen ExampleBasically, every politics is made up of the administrator, the legislature and the judiciary. This is also the case with Saudi Arabia. The executive is made up of the King who is also the rash minister and new(prenominal) two deputy prime ministers together with the cabinet which is appointed by the king and is composed mainly of members of the royal family. The legislature is patently made up of the Consultative Council which is150 member committee which is headed by a chairman chosen by the king himself. All the other members are also selected by the king but in 2003, it was proclaimed that there were plans to hold elections for half of the membership of the committee as a way of enhancing democracy. The judiciary is represented by the Supreme Council of Justice which makes sure that the law is implemented (Metz, 2004 pp48-53). This paper seeks to analyze Saudi Arabia with exceptional emphasis on the media in general. The pape r will describe the role of the media, its freedom, its regulation and many other issues surrounding the Saudi media in general.Saudi Arabia has evolved over time from being the most pious and inward-looking develop desert kingdom to become one of the richest countries in the world thanks to the fast oil resource. Actually, 90% of Saudi exports are petroleum and petroleum products. These exports are made to countries such as South Korea, Singapore, China, US, mainland China and Japan. The petroleum sector in Saudi Arabia claims a massive 80% of the budget revenue, 45% of gross domestic product (albeit 40% of GDP is taken care by the private sector (Metz, 2004 pp48-53).The country has been under a tight leadership guided by the stringent Sharia law. This law has seen the abuse of human rights as well as abuse of democracy demonstrated by draconian media laws that gag free media. Saudi has once been accused of an authoritarian monarchy well riddled with extremists groups that tries t o defy the rule of the monarchs. These extremists have had to organize and race acts of terrorism as a way of forcing the government to make reforms. The most notable of the terrorist strikes was the 2003 suicide bombings that left hand more than 30 dead in the capital Riyadh. The suicide bombers were suspected to be linked to the worldwide Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda. The 2003 Riyadh attack has since been named the Saudis version of September 11. It may be true that the extremists may be calling for a long overdue reform but their approach has missed the point. Nevertheless, the government of Saudi Arabia has had to face the very daunting task of instituting and enacting reform as a result of twinge from both extremists and non extremist groups such as the media (Randall, 1998 pp123-128) as well as combating the ever rising paradox of violence from extremist groups.The ruling monarchy of Saudi Arabia has been passed down the bloodline of the royal family since the 18th c entury. Hitherto, it has been the wish of the royal family to emancipate Saudi Arabia from militant violence by ensuring stability. They have planned to do this by clearing all the militant or dissident groups. This plan is evident by the welcome gesture to the US troops that have been stationed in Saudi especially after the 1990 Iraqs attack on Kuwait.