‘Post’ prints blank column for writer
ISTANBUL: The Washington Post printed a blank column in its newspaper yesterday in solidarity with a Saudi contributor who went missing while on a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, raising concerns about his safety.
Separately, the Post’s editorial board called on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to ensure writer Jamal Khashoggi “is free and able to continue his work”, which included writing columns critical of the upstart royal and the kingdom’s policies.
“His criticism, voiced over the past year, most surely rankles Mohammed bin Salman, who was elevated to crown prince last year and has carried out a wide-ranging campaign to silence dissent while trying t o modernise the kingdom,’’ the Post editor ial read. “Among those in his prisons for political speech are clerics, bloggers, journalists and activists. He i mprisoned women who agitated for the right to drive, a right that was granted even as they were punished.”
The Post’s empty column in yesterday’s edition bore Khashoggi’s byline and the headline: “A missing voice”.
Khashoggi, a 59-year-old veteran journalist who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since Prince Mohammed’s rise to power, disappeared on Tuesday while on a visit to the consulate to get paperwork done to be married to his Turkish fiancee.
The Saudi Consulate insists Khashoggi left its building, contradicting Turkish officials who say they believe he is still there. Turkey summoned the Saudi ambassador on Thursday over the writer’s disappearance.
Khashoggi’s disappearance threatens to further harm relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which are on opposite sides of an ongoing four-nation boycott of Qatar and other regional crises.