Abstract

This study explores the freedom of expression exercised by Saudi Arabian and Vatican City representative news media with reference to the controversial movie trailer “Innocence of Muslims”. The researchers contently analyzed the opinion articles published in daily the Arab News and daily the Roman Observer. The consistency and discord framing approach were applied to investigate the nature of reporting. The researchers found that Vatican City media reported this issue dominantly through consistency frame and Saudi Arabian media depicted it through discord frame, however with the passage of time both were found leaning towards consistency and reconciliation.

Key words: Blasphemy; Freedom of expression; Arab News; Roman Observer; Consistency and discord framing