Cairo, June. 10, (BNA) Activities of 39 term of the Arab Information Ministers, to discuss issues related to joint media coordination.
The Kingdom of Bahrain's delegation is being headed by the Minister of Information and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Mohammed Abdulghaffar Abdullah. Arab League Secretary General, Amr Mussa, highlighted in his opening speech the decision of Arab Ministers of Information on making the sessions of the meeting public for media bodies. He said that this represents a qualitative step which will enrich the Arab discussions and make them transparent. On his part, the Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and former Chairman of the previous session, Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmood, said that the 39th round of the Arab Information Ministers' Council comes at a time of speedy developments and great changes on the media and political arenas, noting that these changes present a number of difficult challenges. These challenges, he said, need clear and effective Arab cooperation to defend rights and Arab and Islamic identities affirming the need to spread peace, humanitarian ideals and the culture of forgiveness. Al Mahmood said in his speech that the work agenda includes a number of topics which require serious work to come up with a clear vision related to these topics towards developing Arab Media and support Arab issues, topped by the Palestinian cause. Moreover, he emphasized the need for more cooperation and coordination among Arab countries in exploiting Arab satellite channels to combat terrorism. Meanwhile, Kuwaiti Minister of Information and Current Chairman of the Council, Mohammed Naser Al Sanusi, affirmed the great responsibilities shouldered by media officials, stressing the need for action with all confidence and transparency to make a quick change in all media bodies to boost their performance. This, he said, will in its turn fulfill the aspirations of Arab countries towards achieving political, economic, social, cultural and educational growth. Sanusi emphasised the importance of adopting common radio and television transmission and reception criteria , electronic media and cooperation and coordination in the fields of satellite channel usage and media production. Meanwhile, Saudi Minister of Culture and Information, Eyad Madani, said that developing and modernizing the Arab media movement plan abroad is considered one of the important issues placed on the work agenda of the council's meeting. He also called for the importance of beginning the execution stage of those plans according to set mechanisms agreed on during the extra-ordinary meetings last February. Madani suggested the establishment of an independent mechanism at the Arab League supervised by the Secretary General to fund these projects each separately according an estimated budget. However, Syrian Minister of Information, Mohsin Bilal, affirmed the importance that all Arab countries implement the Arab media movement agreed on by Arab Ministers of Information and said that their were issues that deserve being reviewed such as the Palestinian issue and the liberation of Golan Heights. He also stressed on the role of Arab media in supporting the ethics of modern dialogue, combating civilizational conflicts and differentiating between legitimate resistance against occupation and terrorism. He also stressed on the right of the Palestinian people to have their own state with Al Quds as its capital. Palestinian Information Minister, Yousif Rizgah, said the Palestinian Government had to confront the Judaization of Quds which is part of Olmert's plan, protect the Palestinian culture and support the Palestinian Infidha (resistance). As to the Yemeni Information Minister, Hassan Al Loumi, he called for activating the kind of joint Arab media capable of responding to enemy media and unveiling allegations and distortion of the Arab and Islamic nations' message. As to the Tunisian Minister Responsible for Contacts and Relations with the Parliament, Rafei Dakheel, he called for more freedoms, greater women's role, better care for children and greater reliance on advanced technologies. He also called for better exploitation of Arab human potentials and provision of further training opportunities in TV and Radio engineering fields.