World News for Students of English

21-01-2019 07:00

Hasan Minhaj is an American comedian who ‘explores the larger trends shaping our fragmented world’ in his show ‘Patriot Act’ which is available on Netflix (an online video streaming service).

There is an episode in which he talks about Saudi Arabia. In it, he criticises the Saudi leader, Prince Salman, and he says that it is possible that Prince Salman was involved in the killing of a journalist named Jamal Khashoggi. He goes on to say that Prince Salman is not modernising Saudi Arabia, and he is only modernising the Saudi dictatorship.

Netflix removed the episode in Saudi Arabia after it received a ‘valid legal request’. Saudi Arabia’s cybercrime law prohibits the production, preparation, transmission, or storage of a material impinging on public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy’ on the Internet. This crime is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $800,000.

You can still watch the full episode outside of Saudi Arabia, and parts of it are available on the ‘Patriot Act’ YouTube channel. Minhaj said that banning the episode meant that it became a trend online, so now it is possible that more people know about it and are going to watch it on YouTube.

Difficult words: fragmented (broken into parts), involved (playing some part in something), impinge (have a negative effect).

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