Vice has repeatedly blocked news stories that could offend the Saudi government, leaving its reporters unsure if they are still able to report freely on the kingdom’s human rights abuses, sources have said.
The media company recently signed a lucrative partnership deal with the MBC Group, a media company controlled by the Saudi government, to establish a joint venture in the Middle Eastern country. Of the 29 jobs currently advertised on Vice’s careers page, 20 are based in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh.
But the enormous sums of money now flowing from Saudi Arabia into Vice have led to high-level concerns within the company’s news division that the bosses are censoring its western-facing news content in order to protect staff working on contracts in Saudi Arabia.
John Lubbock, a freelance writer, said that he and two fellow writers were commissioned by Vice’s news division earlier this year to write a piece about young Saudis campaigning for transgender rights. Their reporting claimed the Saudi state is helping families to harass and threaten transgender Saudis based overseas.
Editors in Vice’s news division actively welcomed the piece, Lubbock said, as it fitted with the outlet’s track record of reporting on LGBTQ+ rights, autocratic regimes and the Middle East. However, publication of the article was repeatedly postponed and then cancelled at the last minute. Multiple sources at Vice said it was pulled after a high-level intervention by senior Vice managers, who said its publication could pose a threat to the safety of the company’s staff working in Saudi Arabia.
Lubbock said: “I was told by editors there that the story was delayed because they had a team of people in Saudi Arabia, but it seems that this may not have been true or only part of the story. Bankruptcy has already affected the publication’s reputation, but if they are now seen as shying away from difficult stories due to their ownership, it’s really the final nail in the coffin of their countercultural image.”
In another recent example, a film in the Vice world news Investigators series about Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was deleted from the internet after being uploaded. Again, sources at Vice said the justification for removing the video was partly attributed to concerns about the safety of staff based in Saudi Arabia.
Five years ago the company paused its work in Saudi Arabia following the state-backed murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi but has since enthusiastically embraced the kingdom.
This time around, rather than pulling back from the country and enabling such pieces to be published, Vice, which last week was bought out of bankruptcy, is rapidly expanding in Saudi Arabia, as part of a wider strategy of shifting away from news and towards lifestyle content. Vice’s western-based news staff retain editorial independence but have been overruled by corporate executives. A Vice spokesperson declined to comment on whether the company now operates an effective ban on covering controversial aspects of Saudi Arabia.
The impact of Vice’s joint venture with the Saudi-backed publisher has already been felt in the company’s London office. For two years a large photograph of the Sarah Everard memorial protest hung on the wall. To the anger of staff, this photograph was taken down by employees working on the Saudi joint venture and replaced by a giant map of Saudi Arabia.
The pace of change in the Middle Eastern country is rapid. Until recently, ordinary Saudis feared a visit from the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, a powerful religious authority that enforced strict Islamic morals and cracked down on youth culture.
Nowadays, the Saudi government actively welcomes Vice, with the media company receiving millions of dollars through its advertising subsidiary Virtue to promote Saudi Arabia around the world.
Most of Vice’s new employees will be based in Riyadh’s Jax district – an attempt to create a trendy artistic area similar to London’s Shoreditch. Saudi-based Vice staff are being employed by a joint venture with the MBC Group, a broadcaster that is 60% owned by the Saudi government.
Vice is promising its new Saudi venture will be a “leading platform for quality digital Arabic content centred on modern Arab youth culture”, and it will not be looking to invest in news reporting.
Last year the company’s former president of news told Vice news staff on a conference call that they should work elsewhere if they felt unable to stay with the company due to its Saudi presence. According to a recording of the call, he said “the Saudi regime has committed atrocities and done all sorts of terrible things” and “if you are doing work for the various Saudi tourism entities, that money obviously, is coming from the government, everything in Saudi is”.
He continued: “We have opened an office, we’re staying there, we’re committed to our presence in the region. If that’s a step too far for you as a human being on a personal level then OK, go with God. No one is forcing you to work here.”
He said Vice had chosen to be part of the “transformation of the region” and wanted to create a platform for young, creative people to express themselves: “They’re sort of carrying the Vice banner of pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in the society and they feel like they’re sort of flying a flag proudly.”
The Guardian has previously revealed how Vice and Virtue organised a giant music festival in the Middle East on behalf of the Saudi government. The event, costing about £15m, featured the Chainsmokers and Tinie Tempah.
The enormous financial power of Saudi Arabia, its attempts to pivot away from oil money and its desire to rebrand as a popular tourist destination have led to rapid change in the country – and the potential for enormous paydays for western companies. While it has relaxed rules on women driving, its human rights record remains dire, especially for LGBTQ+ people.
Despite this, the country’s money has opened doors. Saudi Arabia’s national investment fund has already bought Newcastle United, managed to wrestle partial control of golf and is paying unprecedented sums to lure some of the world’s top footballers to the country.
It is also upending the media business, a struggling industry where brands can be bought on the cheap. In the UK, both the Evening Standard and the Independent are already part-owned by a bank controlled by the Saudi state.
