John Oliver's 'Last Week Tonight' censored in UAE over reference to Khashoggi killing
A Dubai-based television network broadcasting across the Middle East cut substantial portions of an episode of the satiric news program “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” over references to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince being implicated in the killing ...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Dubai-based television network broadcasting across the Middle East cut substantial portions of an episode of the satiric news program “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” over references to Saudi Arabia's crown prince being implicated in the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
The decision by OSN highlights the continued limits of speech in both the United Arab Emirates, which has vowed it will allow protests at the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate talks the Gulf Arab country will host later this month, as well as neighboring Saudi Arabia.
It also highlights just how sensitive the slaying of Khashoggi, who was dismembered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, remains more than five years later as Prince Mohammed has sought to rehabilitate his image through diplomatic efforts.
“Criticizing the royal family, criticizing the crown prince in Saudi Arabia is a terrorist offense and you can be prosecuted for terrorism,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Khashoggi-founded group Democracy for the Arab World Now. “I’m more concerned with the content providers like HBO that are allowing their content to be censored.”
A longtime journalist, royal court insider and defender of the kingdom, Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia after Prince Mohammed's rise. His columns in the Post directly criticized Mohammed's rule. U.S. intelligence agencies and others have assessed that a Saudi hit team killed and dismembered
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