Saudi Arabia’s financial clout among the Arab media has given it an influential tool as it grapples with the international outcry over the death of Saudi writer and dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
From the time Khashoggi vanished into the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, newspapers and television stations across the region allied with Riyadh have echoed the Saudi denial of any knowledge of his fate.
Or they weaved alternative scenarios of an alleged plot by Saudi Arabia’s top rivals Qatar and Turkey to destabilize the kingdom.