The Forward reports that the New Republic cancelled an invitation for anti-Wahhabi author Stephen Schwartz to attend a panel discussion on Saudi Arabia—at the demand of the Saudi government: New Republic Cancels an Invite to Foe of Saudis.

Moderated by The New Republic’s foreign editor, Lawrence Kaplan, the panel discussion included four scholars representing a range of views, including Patrick Clawson, deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a critic of the Saudi regime, and Chas Freeman, a former American ambassador to Saudi Arabia and defender of the kingdom. Though the Saudi government’s co-sponsorship is not mentioned on the magazine’s online publicity section for its events, several participants told the Forward that it was mentioned at the recent panel.

“The fact is The New Republic, as most of its readers understand, can’t stand the Saudis, and I think the problem comes when money demonstrably affects arguments, and in this case I don’t think anyone suspects it would,” said Kaplan, himself a critic of the Saudi regime. “This was a case of the magazine co-sponsoring the debate with someone who was on the other side of the debate and I see nothing inherently unethical about that, as long as [the magazine] hews to the editorial line.”

Kaplan confirmed that he suggested to the magazine’s business operations that two experts be included in the panel — Clawson and Schwartz — and that an invitation was extended to Schwartz. Kaplan and The New Republic’s editor, Peter Beinart, who helped arrange the panel, said they were unaware whether the Saudi government had rescinded Schwartz’s invitation.

“What they [the business side] told me was that for reasons of space they could not take both but I felt we still had a balanced panel because I was a panelist myself and so was Patrick [Clawson],” Kaplan said.

The New Republic’s president and publisher, Stephanie Sandberg, did confirm that the Saudi government was granted some oversight in the formation of the panel. “What we want to do is have a panel which is acceptable to both sides,” Sandberg said. She said that such understandings were a “typical” part of promotional arrangements in which sponsors commit to a minimum advertising campaign in exchange for the opportunity to present their views. In this instance, the Saudis took out 12 advertisement pages, allotting them three panel discussions, Sandberg said.