Saudi Arabia maintains one of the world's most restrictive censorship regimes, characterized by close state monitoring and restrictions of media, internet, and public expression under official state law.
Multiple forms of media including books, newspapers, magazines, films, television, and content published on the Internet are censored in the country.
Changes have been made to lessen these restrictions; however, some government-led efforts to control information have also drawn international attention. In 2014, Reporters Without Borders described the government as, "relentless in its censorship of the Saudi media and the Internet," and in 2018, it ranked Saudi Arabia 169th out of 180 countries for freedom of the press.
Law and operation
Though formal laws regarding censorship were not yet in place for Saudi Arabia, hostile conditions in the country led leaders to take on stricter rules that in turn affected the media. Specifically, the Iranian Islamic revolution and seizure of the Grand Mosque by extremists in 1979 led the government to crack down on radical Sunnis. The government under King Khalid, and later his brother King Fahd, enforced policies to help counteract potential hostility and unrest, such as working closely with the religious establishment to create reforms.
Government regulation of media was not formally detailed until 1992, when a new wave of discontent emerged. The government released a 1992 media policy statement, which outlined aims for journalists including both a religious and political component in favor of Islam and Saudi Arabia respectively.
Saudi Arabia is distinct from other Gulf Cooperation Council countries in that its constitution does not protect freedom of expression. The Basic Law of Governance, enacted as an informal constitution in 1992, formally specified limits to free expression. Article 39 of the kingdom's Basic Law of Governance states that:[The media] is prohibited from committing acts leading to disorder and division, affecting the security of the state and its public relations, or undermining human dignity and rights.The Law of Printing and Publication, enacted in 2003, expanded upon the regulation of media, encompassing books, drawings, writings, photographs, films, recordings, radio and television broadcasts. The law, which is enforced by the Ministry of Culture and Information, requires government licensing for any of the aforementioned activities. It lays out a series of restrictions, including that the printed matter will not conflict with Sharia law, will not threaten public security, and will not "stir up discord among citizens." Though this law was written in the context of print media, it also extends to electronic media. In 2007, the Saudi government issued an Anti-Cyber Crimes Law, which lists cyber crimes that can result in imprisonment and fines. The law specifically prohibits content that negatively impacts public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy, "through the information network or computers," which can include content that promotes drug use, pornography, gambling, or terrorism.
A 2011 royal decree extended the licensing requirement to include online newspapers and blogs and increased penalties for violations of the earlier press law. Those penalties include large fines, removal of the content, and potentially closure of the establishment responsible, along with suspending or banning the person or group from future publishing. In charging individuals with violations, the government often applies these laws, sometimes in conjunction with counterterrorism laws. These laws extend the definition of terrorism to include content that is damaging to Saudi Arabia, its reputation, stability, and security.
The Ministry of Information is responsible for overseeing Saudi media and has been called the "main agent of censorship" in the kingdom. A special unit, the Management of Publications department, analyzes publications and issues "directives" to newspapers and magazines that state the way in which a given topic must be treated. According to the Encyclopedia of Censorship, "The main effect of this system has been to impose on journalists rigorous self-censorship."
Press The print media in Saudi Arabia, though privately owned, is closely tied to the government. The registration of new journalists, changes in staff of a media outlet, and creation of new outlets all require government approval. Due to government subsidies, the daily newspapers often rely on state support and tend to align with the Saudi Press Agency on more controversial topics. Despite this, newspapers have increasingly published stories on topics such as crime, drug trafficking, and extremism.
Some censorship of foreign newspapers and magazines targets content of sexual nature, including nudity, pornography, and homosexuality. In 1994, all Saudi women magazines were banned by the Ministry of Information. This move was considered to be related to the pressures of the religious establishment or ulema. After this ban, nineteen of twenty-four magazines closed down due to the fact that their major revenue had been advertisement earnings paid by Saudi companies.
There are numerous documented instances of the Saudi government forcing the resignation of journalists or banning them from publishing in the country. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported in 2002 that the Ministry of Information forced two different newspaper editors to resign and fired the head of a publishing house due to the critical and liberal nature of what they had published. Several more writers were banned from the press in 2003, including Wajeha Al-Huwaider, a writer for Al-Watan and Arab News and a prominent women's rights activist.
Though the Ministry of Information is responsible for monitoring the press, the religious establishment in Saudi Arabia also alerts of the government of journalists. In some cases, religious clerics called for punishments including death to be given to critics of Wahhabi Islam in the media. These punishments were sometimes issued in religious court, such as in 2003 when the journalist Mansour al-Nogaidan claimed he was sentenced to 75 lashes for his articles criticizing the religious doctrine of the country.
Jamal Khashoggi The assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi gained international attention. After many years serving as a reporter and foreign correspondent for several Arab newspapers, Khashoggi worked as a deputy editor-in-chief of Arab News from 1999 to 2003. In 2003, he became the editor-in-chief for Al Watan, a daily newspaper that pushed for reform in Saudi Arabia and published information of more sensitive issues, specifically regarding the Riyadh compound bombings. Khashoggi was dismissed from his position at Al Watan because under his leadership columnists wrote articles questioning the religious police and criticizing the country's following of Ibn Taymiyyah, the Islamic scholar who inspired Wahhabism. He left Saudi, and began working in the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., but later returned to Al Watan until he was once again removed three years later.
After leaving Al Watan, Khashoggi appeared as a commentator on different Arab and international news channels and wrote for a variety of publications. Khashoggi was a columnist for Al-Hayat newspaper but was banned in December 2016 after he wrote articles criticizing Donald Trump. He left the Kingdom, going into a "self-imposed exile" in the United States in 2017 due to fear of arrest, and began writing for The Washington Post.
On 2 October 2018, Khashoggi went missing after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to collect some documents from the Consulate. Saudi officials claimed that they were not responsible for Khashoggi's death but were not able to provide evidence of what happened. Meanwhile, Turkish officials stated that Saudi agents killed and dismembered him, before dumping him in a Turkish forest. Saudi officials later reported that Khashoggi died in a fight with people he met in the consulate. After several weeks of contradictory claims from the Saudi government, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency concluded that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the assassination of Khashoggi, although the matter of who directed the assassination is still in question by some parties.
This case was highly publicized due to the notability of Khashoggi as a reporter with ties to the royal family who faced numerous restrictions in his career as a journalist.
In May 2019, Amnesty International claimed that Saudi Arabia used NSO Group's Pegasus software to target activists and journalists, including Khashoggi. Deputy Director of Amnesty Tech claimed that "governments who are known for outrageous human rights abuses" use this software to track down the dissidents and human rights defenders. The Kingdom Came to Canada, a Citizen Lab's report, shows how Omar Abdulaziz, another Saudi activist residing in Canada, was targeted by the Saudi government to access the sensitive conversations he had with his friend Jamal Khashoggi. Abdulaziz had also filed a lawsuit in December 2018, alleging that the Saudi authorities used Pegasus spyware to hack his phone and access his conversations.
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian citizen who had his nationality cancelled after he started to criticize Saudi Arabia. He later travelled to nearby Afghanistan and spent his final years there.
Persecution and Suppression of Civil Society Activists Abroad Saudi Arabia routinely engages in suppressing its critics abroad, including pressuring international organizations to erase or downplay criticism of the Kingdom. According to Freedom House, the regime is known for the extensive use of "spyware, proxy punishment, detentions, assaults, and renditions in nine countries spanning the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Asia".
In 2026, the High Court of England and Wales found out that Saudi Arabia "ordered and directed the hacking of London-based dissident Ghanem al-Masarir’s electronic device through the deployment of the Pegasus spyware program". The findings led to a severe criticism by human rights NGOs during the 61st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling for "strengthened international accountability and strict regulations on the use of spyware to protect activists and dissidents, particularly those living in exile." In 2025, Saudi Arabia demanded the United Nations' Internet Governance Forum to erase criticism by a well-known human rights dissident from its archives. In 2021, human rights defender Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi was arrested in Bulgaria, where he sought to request asylum in the aftermath of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. He reported that was arrested in administrative charges and a Saudi representative oversaw the proceedings alongside the Bulgarian representatives.
Film and television
Public cinemas became illegal in 1983 when conservative clerics deemed cinemas a corrupting influence, claiming that both Western and Arab-language films were, "contrary to the teachings of Islam."
Over time, the ban on movie theaters was counteracted by the introduction of satellite television and video downloads, as well as by Saudis regularly visiting nearby Dubai and Bahrain where they could go to public cinemas freely. As citizens tried to circumvent some of these restrictions, the Saudi government lessened their regulations, but maintained some level of censorship. The government initially banned ownership of satellite television receivers in 1994. However, after an increasingly large percentage of the population bought satellite receivers and subscribed to various programming packages, the Saudi government grew more willing to tolerate satellite television as long as the programming content was not pornographic, critical of the Saudi government or Islam.