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)
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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.



Florence Bans Check-in Keyboxes as Italy Acts against Overtourism

People pose for selfies in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, April 13, 2024. (Reuters)
People pose for selfies in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, April 13, 2024. (Reuters)
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Florence Bans Check-in Keyboxes as Italy Acts against Overtourism

People pose for selfies in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, April 13, 2024. (Reuters)
People pose for selfies in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, April 13, 2024. (Reuters)

Florence's local government has ordered owners of holiday rental properties to remove self check-in keyboxes by February 25 in a move against over-tourism in the Italian Renaissance city.

Rental companies such as Airbnb increasingly use self check-in keyboxes to save time for property owners and holidaymakers, who no longer need to meet to hand over keys and complete check-in procedures.

However, critics say the boxes are ugly and argue that check-ins without a physical encounter between guest and renter pose a security risk.

"Next week we will go ... to check where the ban on keyboxes is not respected, and then we will remove them," Florence Mayor Sara Funaro told a local television channel on Wednesday.

Fines of up to 400 euros ($417.20) will be imposed on non-compliant owners, according to the city council's decision.

Other famed Italian tourist destinations such as Rome and Venice have also taken steps to rein in tourist numbers as locals protest against the lack of affordable accommodation and hoteliers say holiday lets are hitting their business.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government has already issued a nationwide rule prohibiting check-ins without visual guest identification.

Massimo Torelli, spokesperson for the "Let's save Florence to live in it" campaign, said the group had been daubing the check-in boxes with a red cross.

They are "everywhere, on the bicycle racks and on the street-light poles ... Florence is dying of uncontrolled tourism," he said.

Torelli said he was pleased that city hall was finally taking action and he hoped the number of apartments dedicated to short-stay visitors would drop from 15,000 at present to 7,000-8,000, freeing up accommodation for local residents.