Netflix took down an episode of Hasan Minhaj-hosted "Patriot Act" in Saudi Arabia featuring a segment criticising the country's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's alleged involvement in the journalist Jamal Khashoggi murder case.
Netflix took down an episode of Hasan Minhaj-hosted "Patriot Act" in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The episode featured a segment criticising the country's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's alleged involvement in the journalist Jamal Khashoggi murder case.
The episode will not air in Saudi Arabia but is available elsewhere.
In the episode, Minhaj blames Mohammed bin Salman for Khashoggi's murder, calling it the "biggest tragedy of the MBS era", according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Minhaj also spoke about how American companies preferred to keep their business ties intact with Saudi Arabia.
Netflix, on its part, said they received a legal request from the Saudi government to remove the episode from its platform, though the episode remains available on YouTube.
"We strongly support artistic freedom and removed this episode only in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request -- and to comply with local law," Netflix US said in a statement.
Minhaj's show started screening in October and is already very popular.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, disappeared after he entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2, 2018, to collect a document for his upcoming marriage to a Turkish woman.
The Saudi government initially said he left the consulate through the back door.
Following a global outrage, Riyadh later acknowledged that Khashoggi was killed in a fistfight inside the consulate after an interrogation went wrong.
Recently, the Turkish media reports suggested that people who came out of the consulate were carrying a bag which contained Khashoggi's body parts.
PTI