RIYADH, 24 May 2005 — The Saudi Association for Media and Communications (SAMC) has stressed the need for institutional reforms in the Kingdom in terms of news management. The aim is to address media concerns for access to legitimate information.
“Government departments have a tendency to withhold information while their websites display old news. This makes it difficult for the English media especially to be accurate and up-to-date in its reporting,” Dr. Ali Shewel Al-Garni, president of SAMC, told Arab News.
He said the government should seriously consider having an official spokesman in each ministry. This would facilitate access to news. “It would be highly desirable if we had an official spokesman who gave information on cabinet meetings to the media,” Dr. Al-Garni said.
At present, only some ministries have official spokesmen who journalists generally do not feel are cooperative even when it comes to releasing the most basic information.
Replying to a question on this matter, the SAMC chief said: “Accessibility to information is the fundamental right of every individual, whether for citizens or the media, and is part of the responsibility of every governmental agency.”
He said there were still some misconceptions in government departments regarding the release of information to the media. “There is a tendency to withhold information and this has nothing to do with any governmental regulation barring the release of the information. It has to do with the mindset of certain people. They think that giving information is not allowed.”
His statement found support from a diplomat who told Arab News recently that the diplomatic community in the Kingdom seems to be groping in the dark in the absence of briefings by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “When I was posted to Washington, we had daily briefings by various departments. Here, even a monthly briefing would be an improvement but we don’t even have that.”
Dr. Al-Garni said the problem was compounded by the fact that most government websites display information which is no longer valid. He commended the initiative by Madinah Governor Prince Muqren in encouraging all government departments to post information on their websites as part of his e-government project.
In response to a question, the SAMC president agreed that while government websites often provide detailed information in Arabic, they tend to be sketchy in English. “There is a need for training Saudis in how to deal with the international media.”
To meet this need, he proposed the temporary deployment of Saudi graduates from the College of Languages and Translation (COLT) in various ministries where they would act as interpreters during press conferences. This would not only provide job opportunities to Saudis but also would make it easier for foreign journalists to interact with ministries, he added.
SAMC, founded three years ago, has media experts and journalists from the Kingdom, Arab countries, the United States and Europe as its members. It also conducts training programs for journalists in the Kingdom.
