Saudi medical students meet the press. Photo by Christa Case Bryant/The Christian Science Monitor
During the eight years I organized overseas trips for US news editors at the International Reporting Project, I had a rule of thumb that served me well—if a country has a Ministry of Information, it means trouble.
So when, after a two-year effort, the Saudi Royal Court finally granted IRP’s request to bring 12 editors to the Kingdom on a fact-finding/study tour, and assigned the visit to the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information (MOCI), I was prepared for headwinds. I didn’t realize it would be a nor’easter.