Saudis ban distribution of Al Hayat indefinitely

Cairo: Saudi Arabia has indefinitely banned the distribution of a leading Arab newspaper, Al Hayat, just days after the paper disclosed that a Saudi extremist had played a key role in a violent Iraqi Al Qaida front group.

One of the kingdom's most influential journalists, Dawood Al Shirian, who is a former regional director at Al Hayat and still writes a weekly column immediately criticised the move, calling it a sharp retreat from recent growing press freedoms.

It was unclear if the Iraqi article was the main impetus for the ban, or merely the culmination of several weeks of disputes, mostly on other issues, between the newspaper and the kingdom's Information Minister.

A journalist close to the newspaper in Riyadh said the Iraqi article, which appeared in Monday's editions, was just one in a series of disputes with the government. In recent months, Al Hayat's Saudi office had received several warnings from the country's Information Minister, Eyad Madani, about writings by its columnists, especially by a columnist who often criticises government inefficiency and red tape, said the journalist.

Al Hayat's Saudi edition did not appear on news stands Monday and Tuesday because of the ban. A private distribution firm in the kingdom, the National Company of Distribution, confirmed it had been told not to distribute the paper.

Saudi information officials had no comment, nor did Al Hayat officials in London, the paper's headquarters.