Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression
"A note from Karen Attiah, Global Opinions editor
I
received this column from Jamal Khashoggi’s translator and assistant
the day after Jamal was reported missing in Istanbul. The Post held off
publishing it because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he
and I could edit it together. Now I have to accept: That is not going to
happen. This is the last piece of his I will edit for The Post. This
column perfectly captures his commitment and passion for freedom in the
Arab world. A freedom he apparently gave his life for. I will be forever
grateful he chose The Post as his final journalistic home one year ago
and gave us the chance to work together.
I was recently online looking at the 2018 “Freedom in the World” report published by Freedom House and came to a grave realization. There is only one country in the Arab world that has been classified as “free.” That nation is Tunisia. Jordan, Morocco and Kuwait come second, with a classification of “partly free.” The rest of the countries in the Arab world are classified as “not free.”
As a result, Arabs living in these countries are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives. A state-run narrative dominates the public psyche, and while many do not believe it, a large majority of the population falls victim to this false narrative. Sadly, this situation is unlikely to change."
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