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TEHRAN, Jan 2 - Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission has asked Netflix in a request to pull out an episode – which criticizes the regime's brutalities- from its Patriot Act show, Financial Times reported.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Within the episode a stand-up comic Hasan Minhaj criticizes the Saudi Arabian government over Jamal Khashoggi's murder and its role in the war in Yemen.
The Saudi watchdog claimed the show violated the country's cyberlaws, the Financial Times reported.
In the episode in question, Hasan Minhaj called for the United States "to reassess" its relations with Riyadh and said that the Yemeni war was "the biggest tragedy" of the rule of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, according to the FT.
The censorship prompted swift criticism; Human Rights Watch,according to The Guardian, said artists whose work is broadcast on Netflix "should be outraged". The watchdog underscored that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's government officials "believe in no freedom for their citizens – not artistic, not political, not comedic".
Minhaj, an American-born Muslim of Indian descent, was the senior correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show between 2014 and 2018, and was the featured speaker at the White House correspondents’ dinner in 2017, The Guardian reports.
Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post known for his criticism of Saudi policies, was slain in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Riyadh maintains that the murder had nothing to do with the Saudi royal family, and has described it as a rogue operation.
In the pulled episode, Minhaj took aim at Saudi officials, claiming they had changed their story regarding Khashoggi repeatedly, and at one point "were saying he died in a fist fight, Jackie Chan-style".
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing Ansarullah movement.
According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.
The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million
Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.
Netflix is a subscription-based American media-services provider that offers content primarily via online streaming. The video service, founded in 1997 in California, has reportedly gained over 100 million subscribers in over 190 countries.
Source: Financial Times, The Guardian, Sputnik News
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