Manama: Saudi Arabia’s culture and information minister has called for a “conscious and moderate” media policy that avoids tension and incitement.
“The Saudi media is going through one of the most difficult stages in modern times,” Abdul Aziz Khaja said. “Challenges require that the media, especially the radio and television, adopt a policy of consciousness and moderation where there is no room for tension, incitement and clattering,” he said, quoted by local daily Al Eqtisadiya on Monday.
The minister who was attending the celebrations marking 50 years of radio and television broadcasting in Saudi Arabia did not elaborate on the nature of the challenges facing the Saudi media.
In his statement, the information minister said that the progress of the media in the kingdom had been steady. Progress has been gradual and steady and the media sector expanded and developed, especially with the launching of several television stations, he said.
“We wish to pay tribute to all those who have contributed to the development of the media in the kingdom,” he said. “We are all fully aware of the significance of the media in promoting new concepts and greater awareness about risks to social cohesion,” he said.
Several Saudis have recently amplified calls to rein in exaggerations in some sports programmes where open fanaticism for top-flight football clubs has often caused frictions. Strong tribalism tendencies have also found their way to media programmes on several stations, prompting calls for ensuring that national social unity must not be put at risk.
Saudi officials have also warned that the kingdom was facing a “media war waged by people targeting the country’s values.” They said that social networks provided platforms for “armies of experts in distorting facts and waging attacks” and called for “a conscious role of the Saudi media in defending the identity, values and achievements of the nation and in refuting the nefarious arguments against the kingdom.”