RIYADH, 28 November 2006 — Prince Faisal Bin Salman, chairman of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), yesterday emphasized the need for well-qualified and well-trained editorial and technical personnel for the development of print and electronic media in the Arab world. “We cannot aspire for a good and constructive media without having manpower to manage it efficiently,” he said.
Prince Faisal was addressing a two-day seminar-cum-workshop on “The Role of the Media in Serving as an Instrument for Human Development” at the UNDP office in the Diplomatic Quarter here. “Media plays an important role in manpower development and vice versa,” he said. He also commended the role of the United Nations in extending the best for peoples and nations around the world.
The SRMG chief criticized some media organizations for getting along with their reality without making efforts to achieve their objectives. “We have seen a new era of progress and development ushering in the Arab world since about 10 years. During this period we have observed good results achieved by individual, limited and joint stock companies.”
He did not favor the dominance of either idealism or reality over one another and wanted a marriage of the two in order for companies to realize their noble objectives.
Prince Faisal emphasized the pioneering and important role of public media all over the world and cited the example of BBC radio. “We are now going through a phase of learning in the Arab media, which has sharply shifted toward privatization. The media institutions have started understanding their social role little by little and the time for sensationalism has gone, because Arab readers and viewers are fed up with sensationalized reporting. They won’t accept any fabricated stories or those that lack accuracy,” he said.
Prince Faisal said there is a craze for a strong, balanced and objective media and the media organizations have understood that. “There is a strong trend in the private sector toward strengthening its social role.” He said the historical background of the Enron Company’s collapse has frightened the private sector, which fears that somebody would abuse public money.
He added that most Saudi companies wanted to shoulder their social responsibilities. “I hope this trend will continue, achieving integration between reality and idealism.” He said there is no contradiction between having profitable media companies and them carrying out their social responsibilities.
In this respect, he noted the role of banks in charitable and manpower training activities. He specially mentioned the role of the Mohamed Abdul Latif Jameel Foundation in providing manpower training and social development.
Prince Faisal pointed out that new media organizations were coming up in the Arab world without considering the availability of qualified personnel. “At present there are more than 220 Arabic television stations in addition to hundreds of newspapers and magazines. In Kuwait alone, there will be more than 65 newspapers and 200 magazines by 2007. Moreover, electronic publishing is also gaining momentum, in addition to online publications and radio stations,” he explained.
He added that media and information colleges in Saudi Arabia and other countries were focusing on theoretic study rather than the practical hands on type. “Students get training after graduation and there are many who drop out during the training period,” he said, adding that this would have a negative impact on the development of the Arab media.
The SRMG chairman spoke about his company’s efforts in training Saudi media personnel through the Prince Ahmed bin Salman Institute for Applied Media. “The Ministry of Culture and information has agreed to support the institute and meet its requirements,” he said.
The seminar, which was intended to highlight the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), brought together a large gathering of participants, including women delegates. Mostafa Benlamlih, the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Dr.Abdullah Al-Jasser, deputy minister of culture and information, former Minister of Education Dr. Mohammed Al-Rasheed, were among those present.
Speaking on behalf of the UNDP, Benlamlih underlined the importance of the media in acting as a catalyst for growth. “People are the real wealth of nations. Similarly, development has grown out of the established principle that merely links it to economic growth and high national incomes to focus on the core base of the nation—the individual. Hence, the contemporary concept of human development was introduced mainly by the United Nations Development Program to incorporate this new concept which places the human being at the heart of any development initiative.”
He said King Abdullah was among 191 state leaders who adopted the Millennium Declaration, which included a set of targets and development goals (The 8 Millennium Development Goals- MDGs) that must be achieved by year 2015.
Benlamlih pointed out that the Kingdom was one of the biggest donor countries in development and its efforts have been widely recognized. However, these efforts must be aligned correctly to achieve the desired result. This is not possible unless there is a passion for positive change on the part of the media channel or its personnel.
He said that while Saudi media has progressed significantly in the last decade to address crucial development issues, the culture governing media was still somehow static in terms of coverage which focused more on sensational news than on substantive issues concerning human development.
In this context, Dr. Wafa Al-Rushaid, political and economic consultant, provided a lowdown on the women’s share in the employment market. She explained that Saudi women comprised 6.1 percent of the work force in the Saudi market compared with 30 percent in Egypt, 37 percent in Malaysia as against 40 percent in the rest of the world. In citing these statistics, Dr.Wafa underlined her message that despite massive investment in female education, women still remained at the bottom of the employment chart at the international level.
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Information, Dr.Al-Jasser said the ministry has been training Saudi cadres in the media field and has enabled them to get acquainted with their responsibility toward human development. The deputy minister pointed out that the workshop will shed light on the process of development in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia signed in 2000 a development protocol which aims at combating poverty and diseases, improvement of healthcare facilities, promoting sustainable environments and the development of international partnerships.
On the subject of “Media and Education,” former Minister of Education Dr. Mohammed Al-Rasheed called for closer cooperation between the media and the educational authorities. “During my tenure as education minister I had set up a center for promoting such cooperation. The center used to coordinate with the media in promoting the moral values that formed part of the content of the textbooks.”
Dr. Al-Rasheed also wanted the media to monitor the performance of Saudi schools and report on any shortcomings. “The media acts as a channel through which the Ministry of Education as an employer could gauge the quality of its employees’ performance. Its close scrutiny thus helps in boosting the employees’ performance and overcoming their shortcomings.”
The former minister pointed out that both the media and the educational system were interdependent on each other. While the schools cannot reach the desired standard without the watchful eyes of the media, the latter also cannot discharge its responsibility to the society without a good educational background.
To this end, Dr. Al-Rasheed called for a unification of the goals of the media and the educational system in the larger interest of human development. There should be a multi-pronged strategy whose elements should include: inculcation of national values; promotion of respect for law and order; the training for research and intellectual advancement; promotion of a balanced perspective; development of the spirit of dialogue; acceptance of the other’s point of view; the fostering of a sense of responsibility and cooperation with others; and the striving for excellence.
