Vice Media secretly organised Saudi Azimuth music festival

The Vice Media group secretly organised a music festival for the Saudi government  in March 2020, the Guardian reported on Tuesday.

The leading independent youth media company organised the Azimuth festival - which had an estimated budget of $20 million - through its creative marketing agency Virtue, according to the UK newspaper.

Vice - who announced last April that they would open an office in Riyadh - said in 2018 that they were reviewing their work with Saudi Arabia after the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a hit squad at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Vice employees told the Guardian about their disappointment in the youth media company's continued work with Riyadh despite the kingdom's poor human rights record.

“Vice employees have for years raised concerns over the company’s involvement with Saudi Arabia... we’ve been fobbed off with empty statements and pathetic excuses,” one employee told the newspaper.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by AzimuthFestival فعالية السّمت (@azimuthfestival)

“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,” another employee said.

Azimuth described their festival as a place "where history meets culture", but activists have previously called for boycotts on such music events, stating they are aimed at diverting attention from Saudi Arabia's human rights violations.

A declassified US intelligence assessment released in February 2021 said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely seen as the country's de facto ruler, approved of the operation to kill Khashoggi.

Vice boasts offices in 35 cities across the globe and said they would employ 1,500 people in Saudi Arabia as they announced their Riyadh office opening last year, Al-Arabiya reported.

“Our growth in the region has always been driven by our mission to champion young voices. Given how dynamic youth culture currently is in this part of the world, this move represents a natural expansion of our operations,” Jason Leavy, Vice Media’s senior vice-president, said in a statement at the time.