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Saudi Media Forum Focuses on Keeping Pace with the Sector’s Transformations

The Saudi Media Forum kicked off on Monday in Riyadh, with the participation of local and international experts and stakeholders. (Photo: Bashir Saleh)
The Saudi Media Forum kicked off on Monday in Riyadh, with the participation of local and international experts and stakeholders. (Photo: Bashir Saleh)
    Riyadh - Mohammed Helal and Omar al-Badwi
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Saudi Media Forum Focuses on Keeping Pace with the Sector’s Transformations

The Saudi Media Forum kicked off on Monday in Riyadh, with the participation of local and international experts and stakeholders. (Photo: Bashir Saleh)
The Saudi Media Forum kicked off on Monday in Riyadh, with the participation of local and international experts and stakeholders. (Photo: Bashir Saleh)

Experts and participants in the Saudi Media Forum have emphasized the need to consciously keep pace with the transformations of the media environment.

They also identified means to develop media discourse and the performance of institutions and individuals working in the sector, to meet the expectations of the public, which they said was an influential and active element in the media industry.

Mohammed bin Fahd Al Harthi, CEO of the Saudi Radio and Television Corporation, stressed that progress was the inevitable language of our era. He noted that the essence of the Saudi Vision 2030 was human development, adding that the media was an integral part in this process.

The Saudi Media Forum kicked off on Monday in Riyadh, in the presence of local and international industry leaders, experts and analysts.

The two-day forum features more than 100 working papers and brainstorming sessions and workshops, with the participation of international experts to formulate recommendations on improving media content and suggesting solutions to challenges facing the sector.

Topics discussed at the event include, among other, “The New Media Generation and the Culture of Rapid Changes”, “Digital Influencers: Media or Advertising” and “Media... and the Ethical and Practical Implications of Using Artificial Intelligence”.

In his opening speech, Al Harthi said that the forum was being held at an important development stage for Saudi Arabia, stressing that media freedoms should not tolerate hate speech and insulting religions and religious symbols.

During the first day of the forum, participants reviewed the pillars of developing the media sector and keeping pace with the changes. Saudi officials underlined the need to promote a skillful and balanced media discourse that relies on facts and objectivity.

Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman pointed to the importance of accepting criticism, different opinions, and the diverging viewpoints.

He noted that an official must be in a state of sustainable disclosure, to enhance the public opinion’s trust, while maintaining pragmatism and openness.

“Criticism is a process of evaluating an activity or an official. If criticism is taken with this positive view… public benefit will be achieved,” he told the attendees.

The Saudi media sector

For his part, Majid Al-Qasabi, the designated Saudi Minister of Information, said that the world has become inter-connected through instant communication, which has eliminated geographic barriers.

He added that the media sector in Saudi Arabia was promising and full of opportunities.

The sector’s integrated system, which consists of four entities, is working to achieve a quantum leap, keeping pace with the deep and wide transformations in Saudi Arabia, the minister remarked.

Al-Qasabi also stressed that the media sector in the Kingdom offered wide investment and development opportunities for creativity and content industry.

He said that work was underway to address the main obstacles facing the industry, by building the appropriate infrastructure, enacting the adequate regulations and laws, and developing training programs for emerging competencies, as well as supporting creativity and innovation capabilities.

Moreover, Al-Qasabi pointed to the importance of enabling the sectors that operate in the media and promoting qualitative investments in this field.

The Information minister unveiled the objectives set by the Saudi media bodies, which he said were focused on building leading media companies, developing distinguished local cadres, raising the quality of local content, and empowering entrepreneurs.

In addition, he highlighted the necessity to develop the soft media, which reaches the global public opinion without the need for translation, and to increase the level of the media mix that covers all audience interests, including areas that were not previously explored.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest untold story

Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih said that the Kingdom was “the biggest untold story.”

He explained that the country was an “undiscovered treasure” for the world’s public opinion, except for elite politicians and companies.

The media has a major role in unveiling the real story and showing the Kingdom for what it really is, Al-Falih told the forum.

As for the specialized economic media, the minister pointed to the need for a large number of cadres and specialists to publish accurate economic news and analyze information, in order to keep pace with the increasing volume of demand, opportunities and investments.

He added: “We also need channels and platforms to compete with international media institutions in the economic field, with all the influential analytical, scientific and media capabilities.”

Al-Falih stressed that the Kingdom sought to provide an integrated platform for multiple economic sectors, offering profitability, competitiveness and integration between all components of the Saudi, regional and international economy.

In this context, he stressed that the Saudi economy was linked to its regional and global environment, which should be reflected in the media performance.

Saudi Vision 2030 addresses the economic aspect with an international dimension, and supports leadership in technology, innovation and other sectors, the minister remarked.

He added that the Saudi strategy relied on attracting the decision-making centers of major regional companies, in order to exchange interest and achieve integration with the Kingdom’s market and investment opportunities.

Al-Falih noted that 44 global companies were moving their regional head offices to the capital, stressing the need for specialized and conscious media support that rises to the level of this challenge.

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Varieties

17th Century Wreck Reappears from Stockholm Deep

The remains of a 17th century shipwreck is pictured after resurfacing in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)
The remains of a 17th century shipwreck is pictured after resurfacing in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)
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17th Century Wreck Reappears from Stockholm Deep

The remains of a 17th century shipwreck is pictured after resurfacing in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)
The remains of a 17th century shipwreck is pictured after resurfacing in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)

A 17th century Swedish Navy shipwreck buried underwater in central Stockholm for 400 years has suddenly become visible due to unusually low Baltic Sea levels.

The wooden planks of the ship's well-preserved hull have since early February been peeking out above the surface of the water off the island of Kastellholmen, providing a clear picture of its skeleton.

"We have a shipwreck here, which was sunk on purpose by the Swedish Navy," Jim Hansson, a marine archeologist at Stockholm's Vrak - Museum of Wrecks, told AFP.

Hansson said experts believe that after serving in the navy, the ship was sunk around 1640 to use as a foundation for a new bridge to the island of Kastellholmen.

Archeologists have yet to identify the exact ship, as it is one of five similar wrecks lined up in the same area to form the bridge, all dating from the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

"This is a solution, instead of using new wood you can use the hull itself, which is oak" to build the bridge, Hansson said.

"We don't have shipworm here in the Baltic that eats the wood, so it lasts, as you see, for 400 years," he said, standing in front of the wreck.

Parts of the ship had already broken the surface in 2013, but never before has it been as visible as it is now, as the waters of the Baltic Sea reach their lowest level in about 100 years, according to the archaeologist.

"There has been a really long period of high pressure here around our area in the Nordics. So the water from the Baltic has been pushed out to the North Sea and the Atlantic," Hansson explained.

A research program dubbed "the Lost Navy" is underway to identify and precisely date the large number of Swedish naval shipwrecks lying on the bottom of the Baltic.

Varieties

China Has Slashed Air Pollution, but the ‘War’ Isn’t Over 

This picture taken on February 11, 2026 shows pedestrians walking along an overpass as traffic snarls in Beijing. (AFP)
This picture taken on February 11, 2026 shows pedestrians walking along an overpass as traffic snarls in Beijing. (AFP)
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China Has Slashed Air Pollution, but the ‘War’ Isn’t Over 

This picture taken on February 11, 2026 shows pedestrians walking along an overpass as traffic snarls in Beijing. (AFP)
This picture taken on February 11, 2026 shows pedestrians walking along an overpass as traffic snarls in Beijing. (AFP)

Fifteen years ago, Beijing's Liangma riverbanks would have been smog-choked and deserted in winter, but these days they are dotted with families and exercising pensioners most mornings.

The turnaround is the result of a years-long campaign that threw China's state power behind policies like moving factories and electrifying vehicles, to improve some of the world's worst air quality.

Pollution levels in many Chinese cities still top the World Health Organization's (WHO) limits, but they have fallen dramatically since the "airpocalypse" days of the past.

"It used to be really bad," said Zhao, 83, soaking up the sun by the river with friends.

"Back then when there was smog, I wouldn't come out," she told AFP, declining to give her full name.

These days though, the air is "very fresh".

Since 2013, levels of PM2.5 -- small particulate that can enter the lungs and bloodstream -- have fallen 69.8 percent, Beijing municipality said in January.

Particulate pollution fell 41 percent nationwide in the decade from 2014, and average life expectancy has increased 1.8 years, according to the University of Chicago's Air Quality Life Index (AQLI).

China's rapid development and heavy coal use saw air quality decline dramatically by the 2000s, especially when cold winter weather trapped pollutants close to the ground.

There were early attempts to tackle the issue, including installing desulphurization technology at coal power plants, while factory shutdowns and traffic control improved the air quality for events like the 2008 Olympics.

But the impact was short-lived, and the problem worsened.

- Action plan -

Public awareness grew, heightened by factors like the US embassy in Beijing making monitoring data public.

By 2013, several international schools had installed giant inflatable domes around sport facilities to protect students.

That year, multiple episodes of prolonged haze shrouded Chinese cities, with one in October bringing northeastern Harbin to a standstill for days as PM2.5 levels hit 40 times the WHO's then-recommended standard.

The phrase "I'm holding your hand, but I can't see your face" took off online.

Later that year, an eight-year-old became the country's youngest lung cancer patient, with doctors directly blaming pollution.

As concerns mounted, China's ruling Communist Party released a ten-point action plan, declaring "a war against pollution".

It led to expanded monitoring, improved factory technology and the closure or relocation of coal plants and mines.

In big cities, vehicles were restricted and the groundwork was laid for widespread electrification.

For the first time, "quantitative air quality improvement goals for key regions within a clear time limit" were set, a 2016 study noted.

These targets were "the most important measure", said Bluetech Clean Air Alliance director Tonny Xie, whose non-profit worked with the government on the plan.

"At that time, there were a lot of debates about whether we can achieve it, because (they were) very ambitious," he told AFP.

The policy targeted several key regions, where PM2.5 levels fell rapidly between 2013 and 2017, and the approach was expanded nationwide afterwards.

"Everybody, I think, would agree that this is a miracle that was achieved in China," Xie said.

China's success is "entirely" responsible for a decline in global pollution since 2014, AQLI said last summer.

- 'Low-hanging fruits' gone -

Still, in much of China the air remains dangerous to breathe by WHO standards.

This winter, Chinese cities, including financial hub Shanghai, were regularly among the world's twenty most polluted on monitoring site IQAir.

Linda Li, a running coach who has lived in both Beijing and Shanghai, said air quality has improved, but she still loses up to seven running days to pollution in a good month.

A top environment official last year said China aimed to "basically eliminate severe air pollution by 2025", but the government did not respond when AFP asked if that goal had been met.

Official 2025 data found nationwide average PM2.5 concentrations decreased 4.4 percent on-year.

Eighty-eight percent of days featured "good" air quality.

However, China's current definition of "good" is PM2.5 levels of under 35 micrograms per cubic meter, significantly higher than the WHO's recommended five micrograms.

China wants to tighten the standard to 25 by 2035.

The last five years have also seen pollution reduction slow.

The "low-hanging fruits" are gone, said Chengcheng Qiu from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

Qiu's research suggests pollution is shifting west as heavy industry relocates to regions like Xinjiang, and that some cities in China have seen double-digit percentage increases in PM2.5 in the last five years.

"They can't just stop all industrial production. They need to find cleaner ways to produce the output," Qiu said.

There is hope for that, given China's status as a renewable energy powerhouse, with coal generation falling in 2025.

"Cleaner air ultimately rests on one clear direction," said Qiu.

"Move beyond fossil fuels and let clean energy power the next stage of development."

Varieties

Sydney Man Jailed for Mailing Reptiles in Popcorn Bags 

Investigators recovered 101 Australian reptiles from parcels destined for Hong Kong, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Romania. (AFP file)
Investigators recovered 101 Australian reptiles from parcels destined for Hong Kong, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Romania. (AFP file)
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Sydney Man Jailed for Mailing Reptiles in Popcorn Bags 

Investigators recovered 101 Australian reptiles from parcels destined for Hong Kong, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Romania. (AFP file)
Investigators recovered 101 Australian reptiles from parcels destined for Hong Kong, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Romania. (AFP file)

A Sydney man who tried to post native lizards, dragons and other reptiles out of Australia in bags of popcorn and biscuit tins has been sentenced to eight years in jail, authorities said Tuesday.

The eight-year term handed down on Friday was a record for wildlife smuggling, federal environment officials said.

A district court in Sydney gave the man, 61-year-old Neil Simpson, a non-parole period of five years and four months.

Investigators recovered 101 Australian reptiles from seized parcels destined for Hong Kong, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Romania, the officials said in a statement.

The animals -- including shingleback lizards, western blue-tongue lizards, bearded dragons and southern pygmy spiny-tailed skinks -- were posted in 15 packages between 2018 and 2023.

"Lizards, skinks and dragons were secured in calico bags. These bags were concealed in bags of popcorn, biscuit tins and a women's handbag and placed inside cardboard boxes," the statement said.

The smuggler had attempted to get others to post the animals on his behalf but was identified by government investigators and the New South Wales police, it added.

Three other people were convicted for taking part in the crime.

The New South Wales government's environment department said that "the illegal wildlife trade is not a victimless crime", harming conservation and stripping the state "and Australia of its unique biodiversity".