THE KNOWING OF NAKEDNESS:

On the air in Saudi Arabia, a call-in show wins the king's ear (Hassan M. Fattah, May 4, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

Every Monday evening, Salama al-Zaid puts on his headphones, pulls his microphone close and goes to war on his radio talk show with some of the most powerful figures in the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

For two hours, Zaid opens the phone lines for callers to air their complaints, uncensored and unhindered. Then he takes on the people in high places responsible for fixing those problems.

"I wish all those officials who are listening to remember this," Zaid began one night recently. "You are servants of the citizens. You have a duty to them. It is not below you to call in and respond."

Part showman, part rabble-rouser, Zaid, 49, is the host of Mubasher FM, a show as remarkable for what it says about Saudi Arabia as for the powerful backing it has received from the country's ruler, King Abdullah.

The king, Zaid says, sees the show as a way to gauge the public mood and solve problems he otherwise would not know existed.

In recent years, Abdullah has encouraged more open discussion, eased restrictions affecting women and put some restraints on the dreaded vice police all in an effort, rights advocates say, to avoid real political change.

"The media has always been a red line in this country," Zaid said. "But the king came and said this is the way to reach the people. And he sent a message to me: Keep going."

Top-down Reformation is optimal.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 4, 2007 7:50 PM