Turning a new chapter Not for the first time in its 30 years of existence (and, God willing, not for the last time either), Saudi Gazette is going through a process of change. A new team has joined the paper. At the helm as of today is one of the most renowned newspaper editors in the country, the much respected Khaled Almaeena. With the new team, a new chapter in this paper's story opens. But before looking forward, tribute must be paid to those who have brought the paper to where it is today. They have worked hard and tirelessly, especially the small but dedicated team who have written, produced and published the paper in recent months. It is not an easy job producing a daily newspaper at the best of times. Indeed it is usually an exhausting one even in countries with a long-established tradition of an open media and a plethora of institutions that push out information to the press all the time. Reporting the daily news is not always easy in Saudi Arabia. There are hundreds of stories out there every day, stories of interest to people living and working in the Kingdom but also to the world — political affairs, business deals, cultural and community events, social happenings, human interest stories, tragedies, incidents, buildings being burned down, towns being built; the list is long. But the tradition of informing the media is still not yet there. Institutions and individuals are shy about telling their story. The result is an instinctive response not to tell the story, to keep quiet about it. It is these challenges that the new team sees as the task ahead. (We say “new” team, but it is in fact a combination of the existing talented one and new but well experienced hands.) There has been more news of all kinds. It is vital that there is — for Saudi Arabia's sake as much as for giving readers the news they want. Saudi Arabia's story needs to be told to the world. The misconceptions are still out there. Just last week, when Sweden's defense minister was forced to resign over a defense deal with Saudi Arabia, the accusations from the Swedish opposition Green Party and sections of the Swedish media were that the government in Stockholm had been supporting a “dictatorship” in Saudi Arabia. The fact that this is a complete and utter lie worthy of Islamophobes and the pro-Israei lobby and that Saudi Arabia's political system operates on consensus, as anyone who knows Saudi Arabia well can testify, Swedes included, is not the whole point. The relative mystery that surrounds Saudi Arabia and the way it works helps the spread of this bile. If people in Sweden are ignorant about Saudi Arabia, it is not entirely their fault. An honest picture has to be told and Saudi Gazette must be part of that telling — not least because these are times of great change in the Arab world. The world wants to know what is happening here and in the region. We will do our best to tell them. __
