Vice Media behind £15m Saudi government music festival
Vice Media helped organise a Saudi government music festival in March 2020 despite pledging to stop all work in the nation following the fallout from the state-ordered murder of dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
As first reported in the Guardian, the youth media firm helped organise the Azimuth music festival, which Vice employees estimate topped a total budget of around $20m (£15m).
The lineup included French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre who appeared alongside rapper Tinie Tempah.
At the time, this was understood to be subsidised by an arm of the Saudi government.
However, Vice employees have revealed that this was in fact secretly organised by the media company as it looked to push back into the Saudi Arabian market.
Contractors who worked at the festival – organised through Vice’s creative marketing agency Virtue – were asked to sign non-disclosure agreement, while Vice’s name did not appear on public marketing material.
It comes after the firm had publicly announced that it was pausing all work in Saudi Arabia in 2019 after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“Vice employees 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,” said one Vice employee to the paper.
One employee claimed Vice executives were aware of the reputational damage that could be caused if Vice’s western audience became aware of the extent to which it was working with the Saudi state, and said: “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.”
A spokesperson for Vice 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.
“We opened a commercial and creative office in Riyadh earlier this year, which was reported and shared publicly. Our editorial voice has and always will report with complete autonomy and independence.”