The rules are to be submitted to the Higher Authority for approval prior to implementation, said Abdul Aziz Al-Mulhem, vice minister for IT and information at the Ministry of Culture and Information.
“The rules will regulate the activities of the electronic media in the Kingdom which have tremendously increased and will end violations and excessiveness,” said Al-Mulhem on Sunday prior to a seminar titled “The New Media: Discipline or Chaos.”
The seminar, held at Abdullah Sadiq Dahlan Press Center at the Jeddah Center for Forums and Events, was attended by a number of media persons, online journalists and officials from the Ministry of Culture and Information.
Al-Mulhem, who is also chairman of the Special Commission on Electronic Media at the Ministry of Culture and Information, said online media are making rapid strides and that the Kingdom presently has hundreds of online newspapers and news sites.
“Online media have become an integral part of the landscape and are no longer complementary as it used to be in the past,” he said, adding that this section of the media has changed immensely within the past decade and increased its share in audience. Faiz Al-Shihri, a professor in online journalism, said the electronic media have made a revolution and spread worldwide.
“This new form of media is able to rapidly disseminate news and is independent. This has led to it attracting a huge audience,” he said. Abdullah Marie Bin Mahfouz, general manager of Bin Mahfouz International Law Firm and a member of the GCC Jeddah Center for Law and Arbitration, said there are certain social values that online media should observe and that these are more important than any law.
“Rigid application of laws may not bring the expected results,” he said, adding that rules governing the work of print publications in the Kingdom have been successful in protecting both journalists and wider society. Bin Mahfouz warned that the rules may not be sufficient at times and called on journalists to be committed to accuracy and truthfulness.
“There have been many cases of lawsuits being filed against journalists and people publishing online who were located and punished,” he said.
A number of journalists who spoke at the seminar called on the electronic media to respect the values and traditions of Saudi society, and that the special identity enjoyed by Saudi society should not be dissolved but respected.
