Vice blocked an article criticising Saudi Arabia. This is why we published it instead | Jemimah Steinfeld

At Index on Censorship, we don't buy into a global charm offensive that can't hide the fact that hundreds of activists and regime opponents are still being jailed

If you want proof Saudi Arabia is trying to improve its reputation, visit the website of the Saudi Tourism Authority. There you will find the Q&A section has recently been updated to state that LGBTQ visitors to the country are welcome. This from a country that executed five men for same-sex relationships just four years ago. The hubris is astonishing. And yet to directly challenge those contradictions isn't easy, something John Lubbock, Daisy Steinhardt and Max Colbert recently learned.

As reported by the Guardian on Tuesday, the journalists had co-written an article for Vice World News, which looked at how LGBTQ Saudis face threats from their families and state authorities. It was commissioned before Vice declared bankruptcy and before part of it was bought by a Saudi-linked firm. The article's publication was first delayed and eventually spiked. The reason given? To protect staff at Vice's offices in Riyadh.

Jemimah Steinfeld is editor-in-chief of Index on Censorship

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