Writing in Saudi Arabia

Writing in Saudi Arabia

While blitzing through BusinessWeek magazine this weekend, I came across an article that could keep me out of jail, as long as I do not blog in Saudi Arabia. According to the article Internet Censorship: a Community Effort, Peter Burrows writes that in Saudi Arabia “one local blogger, Fouad al Farhan, was jailed earlier this year for advocating political reforms.”
This does not seem much different from what I do writing political editorials and blogs on a weekly basis. It’s a bit odd to me that a country that employs only 25 people in their version of the FCC can also be one of the most restrictive in the world. As it turns out, citizens in Saudi Arabia file requests to bring justice to internet wrong doers. It is injustices like those that make me grateful to live in America
These actions of the Saudi Arabian government led me to think about my future writing career. How would my life be altered if I lived in a country with such high sanctions for free speech? First, I wouldn’t be perusing a career in journalism. Everything I have been studying the past four years in the communications field would be futile. I would be better off and probably more successful, working at the garbage dumps with my father as I have been the last two summers.
By not perusing a college education, I would not have been on a collegiate wrestling team. By not being on the wrestling team, I would not be acquainted with the some of the people that I consider my best friends. I also would never have the chance to look back and share the memories of my wrestling days with my children.
It just amazes me how many ways my life would be different by the limiting of free speech, and it took an article from BusinessWeek to put this into perspective. Never have I thought, until now, the ramifications of living in another country with these sanctions, and I have never been prouder of the first amendment of the United States Constitution.