“I am very much pleased to learn that you have been elected chairman of the regional committee of this prestigious organization. I wish you every success in taking up this responsibility,” the minister said in a congratulatory message sent to Al-Homaidan.

Al-Homaidan thanked Khoja for his gesture and commended the remarkable progress achieved by the Saudi press and social media. “Through my work for WAN-IFRA I will be able to make use of its international expertise to ably support the Saudi media,” he said.

WAN-IFRA is a global organization of the world’s press, representing more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.

Al-Homaidan has been a member of the organization’s board of directors and a representative of the Gulf countries since 2009.

The organization was created by the July 2009 merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, the research and service organization for the news publishing industry. The two organizations have a 110-year history between them as the global representatives of the world’s press.