Georgia Love slammed for ‘immoral’ Saudi jaunt

Georgia Love and Lee Elliott have taken down glowing posts about a trip to Saudi Arabia after copping criticism for promoting the controversial country.

Georgia Love and husband Lee Elliott have deleted their Instagram posts in Saudi Arabia after copping backlash for their trip.

The couple flew to the Middle Eastern country this week and defended their decision to travel there in the wake of strong criticism.

Love, the former Channel 7 and 10 journalist, reposted Elliott’s explanation in her stories.

“We truly hear and understand what some of you are saying and where you’re coming from on our decision to come to Saudi Arabia, but the world is changing for the better and Saudi along with it,’’ Elliott wrote.

“We thought long and hard about coming and did a lot of research before we did. Saudi has changed a lot in recent years (we were not allowed here two years ago. Women could not drive nor work — none of these things are the case now).

“We strongly believe by Saudi opening up & to the rest of the world and by tourists being here it has to be more accountable. We are on a trip organised and run solely by women who are here on the ground leading the tour with us, locals included. This is a big reason we felt comfortable to come.”

Elliott also stressed they were not being paid to be there and did not endorse “behaviours of the past or human rights violations that have occurred in this country”.

In a now deleted post when they arrived, Love wrote: “After only opening to tourists in 2019, we can’t state how excited we are to be among the first Aussies to tour Saudi.

“To us, it is important to see, experience and learn about all cultures around us and to see how much and how fast our world is changing. We can’t wait to bring you along on this incredible experience with us.”

Love ended the caption with the hashtag Visit Saudi and it was met with a flurry of criticism in the comments section.

Georgia Love shared pictures of the trip to her social media account.

“Sorry Georgia but supporting/promoting Saudi Arabia is incredibly wrong,’’ one follower wrote.

“They executed 82 people a few days ago. Not to mention the lack of women’s rights and the LGBTI+ community. Being a journalist, it might have been a good idea to research a country before promoting it. Their human rights are appalling. Disappointing. Seems a free holiday is more important than morals.”

Another follower wrote: “Why not use your influence/platform to promote somewhere that doesn’t have an atrocious record of human rights violations.”

In response to one person’s quip that it was a paid partnership, Love responded that it was not.

Some commented that the couple should be left to enjoy their holiday without negativity.

Love is departing Channel 7 at the end of March and joining agency Enthral as a senior public relations and content manager.

She will be working across a new platform called The Good News, showcasing positive and uplifting news stories.

Last year she apologised after being accused of “casual racism” on Instagram when she posted a video of a cat at the glass door of an Asia restaurant. It was captioned “shop attendant or lunch?!” alongside a crying laughing emoji.

She was moved off air and into a production role at Seven News.