# Television in Saudi Arabia

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Television in Saudi Arabia," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saudi-television/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's firsthand description, from his own residence in the kingdom, of Saudi broadcast television, permitted last in the region and only once a senior cleric was persuaded it could carry the Quran around the clock, and of the three channels that resulted, one of which occasionally interrupted religious programming with an episode of an American sitcom.*

- **When permitted:** Last of any Middle Eastern government, per Kiriakou
- **The argument that won:** Television could broadcast the Quran twenty-four hours a day
- **Channels he found there:** Two Arabic, one English
- **Kiriakou's verdict:** Very odd

**Television in Saudi Arabia** appears in [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account as a worked example of how a closed society manages information, described from his own time living in the kingdom.[1]

## The closed society

The premise he sets first is one he says most Americans do not understand: Saudi Arabia really is a very closed society. He qualifies the comparison rather than reaching for it, *"it's not as closed as North Korea certainly"*, and gives the practical test instead: try to get into Saudi Arabia without a sponsor, and you cannot.[2]

## How broadcasting was permitted

The Saudis were the last government in the Middle East to allow broadcast television in their country. What finally carried the argument was not liberalisation but its opposite: Sheikh bin Baz became convinced that if they had television, at least they could broadcast the Quran twenty-four hours a day.[2][1]

## What was on

Kiriakou describes the result from his own residence there. There were two Arabic-language channels and one English-language channel. One channel was the Quran, twenty-four hours a day. The other carried religious discussion and religiously themed programming, *"and then every once in a while they would put in an episode of Doogie Howser or the Waltons or something like that. It was very odd."*[1][3]

## What he says it accomplished

He treats the arrangement as propaganda that worked. This was a way for the Saudi government to propagandise its own people, and over many years it convinced its own people, or at least many of them, that the Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam is the correct path and the only true Islam. Talk to Saudis today, he says, and many of them really believe that.[3]

## See also

- [Saudi Arabia and radicalism](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saudi-arabia-and-radicalism)
- [The U.S.–Saudi relationship](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/us-saudi-relationship)
- [The Saudi fear of an election](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saudi-democracy-fear)

## Sources

1. Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Takes Us Inside The Saudi Ter (2015-09-23), at 11:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqN6mNL-dfI&t=663s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-09-23-mintpress-news-former-cia-agent-john-kiriakou-takes-us-insid/
2. Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Takes Us Inside The Saudi Ter (2015-09-23), at 10:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqN6mNL-dfI&t=632s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-09-23-mintpress-news-former-cia-agent-john-kiriakou-takes-us-insid/
3. Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Takes Us Inside The Saudi Ter (2015-09-23), at 11:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqN6mNL-dfI&t=694s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-09-23-mintpress-news-former-cia-agent-john-kiriakou-takes-us-insid/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saudi-television/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt