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Arab Media Leaders stress necessity of having qualified media professionals

KUWAIT, Aug 12 (KUNA) -- Participants in Arab Media Leaders Forum, dubbed "Crises of Arab Media and Ways to Overcome them," stressed necessity of adopting media education in Arab world in order to have professional journalists.
During his remarks in the session Tuesday night, former Kuwaiti Information Minister Sami Al-Nesf said, that the lack of Arab media professionals and specialists led to the emergence of several problems, considering that unprofessional media can increase crises and trigger conflicts.
"The media in its current form has gone out of control and the role of the ministries of information in Arab countries has become limited," Al-Nesf added, stressing the need for training and rehabilitation of media professionals.
He considered that the problem of funding of media institutions in the Arab countries is one of the most important challenges they face.
For his part, editor-in-chief of the Bahraini newspaper, Al-Bilad, Munis Al-Mardi, said that the press in the Arab world suffer due to readers' tendency to electronic journalism.
Al-Mardi added that the method of paper-based journalism must be replaced with updated new technologies to target the audience.
He explained that the media crises today have become similar not only in the Arab world, but also in the globe, noting that the biggest problem facing media today is the rumors.
Editor-in-chief of the Saudi Al-Jazeera newspaper, Khaled Al-Malek, said that the 60-year-old Al-Jazeera is one of the first Saudi newspapers that launched a website with an "innovative" experience in dealing with new technologies.
Regarding ways to confront the new media, Al-Malek stressed the necessity of overcoming this stage by searching for solutions not only at the individual and institutional level, but at the state level too, in addition of supporting the traditional media institutions.
He pointed to some of the weaknesses that the Arab media suffer from, such as the lack of training of the press cadres who are able to keep pace with the new media.
Editor-in-chief of the Omani newspaper, Al-Ru'ya, Hatem Al-Taie, said that the Arab world has gone through many crises over the past decades, which is directly reflected on the role of media as a purposeful and objective humanitarian message.
Al-Taie added that the financial challenge, from his own experience, is one of the main challenges that threaten the stability of media institutions in the Arab world, especially in the current circumstances with the effects of the Corona pandemic on countries.
He explained that the leakage of distinguished media personnel and their instability led to a decline in the quality of media content provided by media institutions in addition to other challenges, such as the conflict between traditional and new media, which led to a decline in newspapers' readers.
He considered that one of the successful solutions taken by the media institutions in the Sultanate of Oman is the merging of the new and traditional media, calling for a positive view of the technological revolution and its use for our service.
The 7th edition of the Arab Media Leaders Forum is held on August 10-13 under the auspices of the Arab League and the participation of Arab media ministers, a number of media professionals, academics and owners of Arab media outlets. (end) fz.nhq