British media opinions on Saudi Arabia have always been highly vocal, passionate and polarised. This has perhaps never been more true than during the recent Saudi state visit to the UK, which elicited very strong reactions not just about the visit itself, but also bilateral relations, and the Saudi leadership's domestic and foreign influence. The media's reactions to this visit can thus be described as representative of its views on Saudi Arabia in general.

As such, an in-depth study by Arab Media Watch of opinions expressed in Britain's broadsheets and tabloids during that time (29 October - 5 November 2007) spells bad news for Saudi Arabia's image, and more specifically, that of its government.

9 August 2007

Arab Media Watch commends Lebanon's Higher Relief Council for publishing a fully searchable database of those killed in last summer's Israeli invasion. This is particularly relevant to the Associated Press, with which AMW liaised for months last year, resulting in a press release criticising AP for its low Lebanese death toll of 850 (the lowest available, and around 30% less than most other sources), and for its stubborn refusal to explain how it obtained this figure.

This commentary, by Arab Media Watch chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi, was published this month by Haq Al Awda, the Arabic publication of the Badil Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights.

21 May 2007

In the seven years that I have been monitoring British media coverage of Arab issues, I can confidently say that Palestinian refugees constitute the most maligned, misunderstood and under-reported aspect of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This is not only unfortunate but baffling, given its centrality to a just and lasting solution.

16 March 2007

Given the frequent media criticisms and depictions of Hezbollah instigating a war last summer that Israel did not want, Arab Media Watch is disappointed that the Guardian and Independent were the only British national dailies to report, on 9 March 2007, the revelation by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the invasion of Lebanon was in fact premeditated.