The Ministry of Culture and Information organized on Monday a forum in the Saudi capital to discuss the possibilities and future of electronic media in the Kingdom.

The participants in the forum expressed their belief in the “bright future of journalism in electronic media.” To prove their belief, they cited the proliferation of electronic newspapers on the internet being followed by readers who couldn’t wait for the news in the next day’s edition of local newspapers.

The forum came on the heels of a briefing held earlier on Monday by the ministry after the issuance of new policies and rules by the government regulating digital media. The briefing was made by Tarek Mohammed Khadrawi, the director of electronic publishing at the Ministry of Culture and Information.

“Even at present, digital media representatives are among those represented during press briefings and press conferences on various events in the Kingdom,” said one of the participants who included representatives from the media and related fields.

Another participant from an online publication said that newspapermen from the electronic media were among those who attended the press conferences early at night some time back at the Riyadh Airbase on the campaign against the Houthi rebels and their cohorts in Yemen. “They were also among those active in asking questions from Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al-Assiri who held the press conferences on the campaign of the Saudi-led coalition,” he added. Al-Assiri is also an adviser at the Saudi Ministry of Defense.

The forum organizers reminded the participants, who also included broadcasters, to keep their duty in disseminating information in society in the pursuit of their professions.

“In doing so, you become a partner of the government in the dissemination of accurate and objective information to the public in general,” they said.