The Iranian and Saudi Arabian Cold War encompasses the entire Middle East. Saudi Arabia wants power over the Middle East, and claims they have the right to this role due to the Arabian Peninsula’s history as the birthplace of Islam. However, the Islamic Republic coming to existence in 1979 in Iran threatens Saudi Arabia’s claim for power. Both countries are involved on opposing sides in many proxy wars throughout the Middle East, such as in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
Media in Iran is controlled by the government, which is controlled by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who came to power in 1989. Freedom House states that Iran’s media situation is not free, with a score of 18/100 in 2018 (Freedom House). Recently in early 2019, a journalist was jailed in Iran for posting his comments on the corruption in Tehran (Committee to Protect Journalists). There are no private or independently owned TV or radio stations inside Iran, they are all controlled by the government. There are at least 300 newspapers within Iran, however they are funded by political parties that have the same views as the government. There are also many state radio stations, that are funded by the government, and also broadcast internationally in many different languages (Council on Foreign Relations). Many Iranians use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to get around Iran’s highly-censored internet (Reporters Without Borders).
Similar to Iran, Saudi Arabia also controls all aspects of media outlets. There are no private owned TV channels in Saudi Arabia. Especially after the 2011 protests that occurred across the Middle East, Saudi Arabia watches all media outlets carefully, and if they feel someone is threatening the government, that outlet will get shut down. Due to this, all journalists practice self-censorship to protect themselves (BBC). Freedom House declared Saudi Arabia as not free, with a score of 7/100 (Freedom House). There is widespread filtering on the internet, however citizens can still access social media sites. Jamal Khashoggi, a widely known journalist and Saudi critic was murdered by people tied to Saudi Arabia in 2018 after entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Although he comes from a family with close ties to the Saudi royal family, he was in exile after speaking critically of Mohammad bin Salman’s policies (BBC).
Both Saudi Arabia and Iran are involved in many wars across the Middle East, always supporting opposing groups, however. In Syria, Saudi Arabia supports the Syrian rebels against Assad’s government, while Iran supports Assad and his policies. In Yemen, Saudi Arabia supports the internationally recognized government, and according to Reuters, Iran is supporting the Houthi rebels who are fighting the government. Since the beginning of the Iraq war, Iran has been spreading influence throughout Shia-backed groups through media outlets (New York Times). Saudi Arabia is doing the same, by spreading Saudi broadcasting group Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) in Iraq to Sunni Iraqis (Arab News).
Since the 1990’s, Saudi Arabia has been building a huge media empire that is pan-Arab, just to influence news in the Middle East in their favor. Saudi Arabia is trying to influence media outlets in other areas as well. Currently, Saudi Arabia is pressuring Qatar to shut down Al-Jazeera. Saudi Arabia, and other countries such as Egypt, dislike Al-Jazeera because the news outlet connects to a wide range of people and according to them, provokes the opposing view (Washington Post).
Between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Iran is definitely more crafty at spreading their influence throughout the Middle East. After the 1979 revolution, Iran tried to export their revolution to other countries, and it doing so, they learned how to effectively spread their ideas.
Media in the Middle East 