Reporters on the Job

• Shame in Saudi: Reporting today's story about the attacks in Saudi Arabia over this past weekend was one of Faiza Saleh Ambah's most difficult assignments (page 1). Not because the information was difficult to get, but because of her own personal revulsion.

"It was hard to concentrate and see this as a journalist, rather than as a Saudi. It's painful to see people killed and mistreated and dragged through the streets," she says.

At her own family dinner table, the overriding emotion was shame. "Everyone is shocked and sickened. These are innocent civilians," she says. "I had to pull on my journalist's mask, and go collect the facts as best I could."

The attacks also prompted Faiza to make adjustments as a parent. She normally drops off and picks up her daughter at school. But usually that happens across the street from the school, outside the security barriers and guards. "It's inconvenient to go through all the checks. But today, I drove her inside. I didn't want her out on the street," Faiza says.

• Hosts with the Most: Allen Lee is the third Hong Kong radio talk-show host to step down in recent months. Staff writer Robert Marquand notes that, "These radio personalities are enormously important political players (page 7). They are partly responsible for the fact that 500,000 people turned out for a march last July, and for the big turnout in local elections and the vote against the pro-Beijing candidates last year.

"If you jump in a cab or walk past an open shop, you will always hear these guys on the radio talking rapid-fire Cantonese," he says.

David Clark Scott
World editor