JEDDAH: One of the things that stood out in the airing of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recent interview was the simultaneous sign language interpretation on the bottom-right corner of the TV screen.
Faiza Natto, founder and director of the Deaf Club for Women (DCW) in Jeddah, commended the move, as it kept deaf audiences up-to-date regarding the important topics discussed during the interview conducted by host Dawood Al-Shirian. The interview was broadcasted last week on MBC and the Saudi state television.
Yet she said they did not get to follow all of the interpretation in the first part of the interview, as the news ticker covered the interpreter at the beginning of the show.
“Interpreting news in sign language makes the deaf up-to-date with events in their surroundings whether at a political, cultural, social or religious level,” Natto said. “They are part of the society and their integration is an urgent demand.”
On Wednesday, Saudi television channels started introducing sign language to their main news bulletins so that the hearing-impaired can follow events around them, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
Ahmed Al-Fhieed, the sign-language interpreter featured during the Prince Mohammed interview, posted a video on Twitter saying — while signing — that Minister of Culture and Information Awwad Al-Awwad gave orders for the interview to be interpreted. “There is also another pleasant surprise. The main news bulletin at 9:30 p.m. will be interpreted the whole year long,” Al-Fhieed stated.
Natto said she has been pushing to spread sign language in several sectors in Saudi Arabia since she established the club.
“The deaf have complained that the (Saudi) TV does not present programs that are interpreted in sign language,” said Natto, adding that she was nominated to be in charge of sign language interpretation on TV yet she is fully committed to her work at the club.
Natto hopes to see sign language being introduced on all Saudi channels and taught in schools. She said the government has a major role in offering care to the deaf and providing them with the hearing aid equipment.
“There is also support to the Saudization project in the private sector which helped (in) recruiting 1,750 deaf people across the Kingdom,” she said.
The deaf community in Saudi Arabia exceeds 720,000 people, according to the latest available statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Planning, dating to 2010.
Natto said that there have been attempts by hearing-impaired people to reach out to the rest of the society to spread awareness of sign language.
“We have reached out to the government and private sectors throughout the previous years,” Natto said. “On April 2, we celebrated the Arab Deaf Week and we taught sign language to more than 290 people.”
Sign language varies from one country to another. The form that is used here is Arab sign language with some local variation.
Saudi TV sign language keeps deaf audience in news loop
Saudi TV sign language keeps deaf audience in news loop
Iceland joins Eurovision boycott over Israel’s participation
- Decision follows similar moves by Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia over the Gaza war
- Iceland’s national broadcaster says it pulled out 'given the public debate' in the country
LONDON: Iceland’s national broadcaster said Wednesday it will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest because of discord over Israel’s participation, joining four other countries in a walkout of the pan-continental music competition.
Broadcasters in Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia told contest organizer the European Broadcasting Union last week that they will not take part in the contest in Vienna in May after organizers declined to expel Israel over its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
The board of Iceland’s RÚV met Wednesday to make a decision.
At its conclusion the broadcaster said in a statement that “given the public debate in this country ... it is clear that neither joy nor peace will prevail regarding the participation of RÚV in Eurovision. It is therefore the conclusion of RÚV to notify the EBU today that RÚV will not take part in Eurovision next year.”
“The Song Contest and Eurovision have always had the aim of uniting the Icelandic nation but it is now clear that this aim cannot be achieved and it is on these program-related grounds that this decision is taken,” the broadcaster said.
Last week the general assembly of the EBU — a group of public broadcasters from 56 countries that runs Eurovision — met to discuss concerns about Israel’s participation. Members voted to adopt tougher contest voting rules in response to allegations that Israel manipulated the vote in favor of its competitor, but took no action to exclude any broadcaster from the competition.
The pullouts include some big names in the Eurovision world. Spain is one of the “Big Five” large-market countries that contribute the most to the contest. Ireland has won seven times, a record it shares with Sweden.
Iceland, a volcanic North Atlantic island nation with a population of 360,000, has never won but has the highest per capita viewing audience of any country.
The walkouts cast a cloud over the future of what’s meant to be a feel-good cultural party marked by friendly rivalry and disco beats, dealing a blow to fans, broadcasters and the contest’s finances.
The contest, which turns 70 in 2026, strives to put pop before politics, but has repeatedly been embroiled in world events. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It has been roiled by the war in Gaza for the past two years, stirring protests outside the venues and forcing organizers to clamp down on political flag-waving.
Opponents of Israel’s participation cite the war in Gaza, where more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government and whose detailed records are viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
Israel’s government has repeatedly defended its campaign as a response to the attack by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023. The militants killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — in the attack and took 251 hostage.
A number of experts, including those commissioned by a UN body, have said that Israel’s offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide, a claim Israel has vigorously denied.
Wednesday marked the final day for national broadcasters to announce whether they planned to participate. More than two dozen countries have confirmed they will attend the contest in Vienna, and the EBU says a final list of competing nations will be published before Christmas.
