Current and former employees of Vice News have taken to social media to slam its parent company, Vice Media, after it was revealed that th...
Current and former employees of Vice News have taken to social media to slam its parent company, Vice Media, after it was revealed that the company organized a $20 million music festival in the Saudi Arabian desert three years after it vowed to cease operations in the country over its poor human rights record.
Marketing materials for the Azimuth Music Festival claimed the three-day music, art and food extravaganza was subsidized by the Saudi government as part of its efforts to rebrand itself as a more open society - but it was secretly organized by Vice as part of the company's efforts to expand into the country, the Guardian reported Tuesday.
Staff at the company estimate the budget for the 2020 event was $20 million, with high-end chefs from restaurants such as New York City's Michelin Star-rated Contra and London's Annabel's flown in to cook for the guests.
It promised to bring the country's millennial population the best of Eastern culture, taking place among ancient carvings at the World Heritage site of Al 'Ula, as well as the best of western culture, featuring performances by the Chainsmokers. All of the contractors were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement and Vice's name was kept off of the marketing material.
The festival was seen by many as hypocritical for the media company, which vowed not to do business with the Saudi Arabian government following the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi officials. It was also seen by some as hypocritical of the Saudi government, which forbids alcohol.
But over the past few years, the regime has walked back some of its stricter rules, including those that forbade women from driving and restricted restaurants from playing music. The country has tried to portray itself as being a more open society as it tries to draw tourism - and the festival was intended to be part of its attempt at rebranding.
'Allow us progress, allow us to represent ourselves in the way we feel fit,' Prince Fahad Al Saud told Bloomberg at another music festival last year. 'We are very eager to be part of the international community but we can't be stifled every time we try to make progress because it doesn't look like what you want to see.'
Now, some current and former employees said it was hard to accept the Vice's work in the region, with one telling the Guardian they have 'for years raised concerns over the company's involvement with Saudi Arabia - and we've been fobbed off with empty statements and pathetic excuses.'
Vice Media secretly sponsored the three-day Azimuth Festival in 2020 (pictured), three years after the company announced it would cease operations in Saudi Arabia
Current and former employees for Vice News expressed their dismay with their parent company's relations to Saudi Arabia online
Another unnamed employee told the Guardian: 'It is astounding that - despite ongoing opposition from staff- Vice is still happy to take money from a country that was literally responsible for the state-sanctioned murder of a journalist.'
Others said it was difficult to accept, given the country's bad human rights record, with one employee telling the Middle East Eye Tuesday's report about the music festival was 'incredibly difficult reading for the journalists at Vice who work diligently to report on all aspects of the regime in Saudi Arabia, including its brutal bombing in Yemen, which created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.'
Josh Lubbock also said he 'used to write for Vice about human rights abuses in Bahrain, where the 2011 Arab Spring protests were brutally crushed with the help of Saudi Arabia, so it's pretty s***** to see that Vice now works with the Saudi state.'
And former Vice News editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro also tweeted that the company's 'embrace of MBS sickens me to the core of my soul,' referring to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
'Jamal Khashoggi’s ghost shall haunt Suroosh Alvi [the founder of Vice Media], Shane Smith [executive chairman of Vice Media], and Nancy Dubuc [the CEO of Vice Media] until the end of their days,' he wrote. 'I will be guaranteeing that.'
The three-day music festival came three years after the death of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. At the time, Vice said it would halt relations with the country.
Since then, civil rights groups have claimed that the Saudi regime engages in human rights abuses, pointing to the war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led bombing campaign has contributed to a death toll of over 300,000 people.
But Vice has been accused by Code Pink, a female-led grassroots group, of bias in its reporting on the Yemen war, and people have taken to social media to condemn the media group for its support of the Saudi government.
The group said that one of its Yemen documentaries failed to report in a balanced way on the Saudi-led blockade of the country, with more than 2,800 people signing a petition condemning the media company.
Now that it has been revealed that the company was working with the Saudis for the music festival, some on social media were not surprised, while others seemed concerned about the repercussions of the deal.
Rupert Myers, a British political correspondent, called the report 'grim stuff,' while a freelance reporter said it was 'brazenly unethical.
'I feel sorry for all the hardworking foreign policy journalists at VICE who will, again, today be waking up furious at their employer,' Oz Katerji tweeted.
Internet-based journalist Xeni Jardin also called Vice executives 'amoral a**holes,' and the Saharawi Voice tweeted: 'For Vice it doesn't matter the Saudi regime literally slaughtered and cut into pieces a journalist very recently, what matters is how long they had to wait before working for the Saudis.
'Makes one feel very sorry for all the hard-working journos there,' the outlet continued.
The Saudi government, under Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, has been accused of several human rights abuses
Vice announced it halt operations in the country following the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi (pictured) in 2018
Vice started working with Saudi officials in 2017, when it opened a regional office in Dubai, through which it worked with the Saudi Ministry of Culture
Vice first began investing in the Gulf in 2017, when it opened a regional office in Dubai, through which it worked with the Saudi Ministry of Culture, Middle East Eye reports.
The company previously worked with Saudi Research and Marketing Group, known to have close links with the Saudi government (its former chairman Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud left to become Saudi Culture Minister), for a series of mini-documentaries aimed at promoting Saudi Arabia internationally, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
In late 2018, Vice said its contract with the Saudi Research and Marketing Group was under review in the wake of Khashoggi's death. But then last year, the media group announced it was opening a regional office in Riyadh, the nation's capitol.
'Our growth in the region has always been driven by our mission to champion young voices,' Jason Leavy, Vice Media's senior vice president of international growth, said in a statement at the time. 'Given how dynamic youth culture currently is in this part of the world, this move represents a natural expansion of our operations.
'Having a presence on the ground, with the corresponding insights and storytelling capabilities that gives us, means we are also better placed to partner with leading brands who want to connect with audiences in a meaningful way.'
And following the news that the company funded the Azimuth Music Festival behind-the-scenes, a spokesperson told the Guardian: 'Vice Arabia was set up over four years ago as part of our global expansion - alongside many other media and content businesses who have expanded into the region.
'Vice has always been about creativity and culture for youth in every corner of the world - and in the Saudi Region, two-thirds of the population are under the age of 35,' she said, adding: 'Our editorial voice has and always will report with complete autonomy and independence.'
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