Washington Post told second opinion writer to stop lobbying for Saudi Arabia

The Washington Post has directed a second opinion writer to stop publishing for the newspaper’s opinion blog until his firm ceased lobbying for the government of Saudi Arabia amid the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

Politico reports that the Post told PostPartisan writer Carter Eskew he could not publish pieces on the Post’s website while he continued to work for the lobbying firm he founded, Glover Park Group, that until this week listed Saudi Arabia as one of its clients.

{mosads}Eskew told Politico in a statement that his firm had technically ended its relationship with the Saudi government before he was notified by the Post of the ultimatum, and added that he personally had never been engaged in the firm’s lobbying work for the country.

“I let the Post know of that decision, so technically they did not tell me first,” he said. “But safe to say that the Post, with good reason, feels especially deeply about this and would obviously not want contributors with business relationships with the Saudi government.”

Emails to The Washington Post from The Hill on the directive and whether or not Eskew had fulfilled its requirements were not immediately returned.

Eskew is the second opinion writer for the newspaper to receive such an ultimatum from editors at the Post within a week. On Tuesday the Post confirmed that longtime GOP lobbyist Ed Rogers was given the same directive, while Rogers declined to comment on whether he would cease his relationship with the Saudi government.

The Post’s CEO and publisher Fred Ryan demanded answers in to the disappearance of Khashoggi, an American-based Post columnist, in a statement on Tuesday.

“The government of Saudi Arabia owes the Khashoggi family and the world a full and honest explanation of everything that happened to him, and we support the requests from Jamal’s family and the United Nations for an independent internal investigation,” Ryan said.