Minder

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Minder (disambiguation).

A minder is a person assigned by the government of a nation to accompany a foreign visitor. Minders are commonly used by "closed regimes" such as North Korea to control the information flow between the visitor and the general populace, to structure the visit to limit the visitor's exposure to the society in some way, and to report on the visitor's activities. Minders often have the ostensible purpose of acting as interpreter (often, and less formally, termed a "translator"), guide, or driver for the visitor. Sometimes the minder is not clearly identified as a government agent.

In Iraq under Saddam Hussein, minders were members of the Mukhabarat or main state intelligence organization. In Saudi Arabia, a similar role is performed by the Mutaween or religious police.^{[citation needed]}