Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Adel bin Zaid Al-Toraifi stressed that the Information Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Member States discussed here today a situation in Yemen, media mechanism pursued by the GCC media devices to follow events there and the need for its continuation and development, particularly with regard to highlight the humanitarian tragedy suffered by the Yemeni people in Yemen because of the Houthi militias and forces loyal to the ousted Saleh and their violations of international laws against civilians. In a press conference held here today with GCC Secretary General Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani at Riyadh Airbase Airport following the 3rd GCC Extraordinary Meeting, Al-Toraifi stressed that the Houthi militias and forces loyal to Saleh seek to ban entry of humanitarian assistance to Yemen, "the conferees agreed on the need to strengthen the GCC joint action regarding to the media dealing with the situation in Yemen and development of this GCC great action with various methods, tools and means to reach to all countries of the world along with transmission of the real image of the political efforts exerted by our leaders for the sake of restoration of the Yemeni legitimate government and to deter the Houthi militias as stated in the UN Security Council resolutions in addition to the efforts exerted by "the Arab Joint Coalition Forces" in order to support the right, the start of Determination Storm operation, and then the Hope Restore operation and until now. Dr. Al-Toraifi lauded outcomes and recommendations of this meeting which reflected seriousness of the GCC information ministers during their discussions. "The ministers stressed their keenness to push GCC joint media action and strengthen and discuss development mechanisms. They also discussed performance of the GCC information ministries," he added, pointing that the meeting dealt with some notes on the performance of some GCC governmental information institutions and mechanisms of development, including permanent coordination with the GCC Secretariat General. He pointed out consensus of the GCC information ministers' condemnation of the violations practiced by the Houthi militias on the southern border of the Kingdom through launching ballistic missiles and projectiles from the Yemeni territories which resulted in martyrdom of civilians from Saudi citizens and expatriates. Dr. Al-Toraifi stressed that the GCC ministers concluded a number of important ideas and proposals in this meeting. In a reply to a question, Al-Toraifi said that the meeting reached GCC joint action mechanism to show efforts of the coalition forces in Yemen in addition to supporting the Yemeni people who live in the Kingdom, pointing out that the cooperation among the GCC information ministries is existed, particularly the Yemeni issue since the start of Determination Storm operation and then the Renewal of Hope operation regarding coverage of these events daily. He added that the meeting discussed how to change some of the mechanisms and procedures and how to transfer this voice abroad. Regarding coverage of the Houthi attacks in the GCC media, Al-Toraifi said that this coverage is reasonable and we look forward to the best, "the GCC information ministers also discussed how to devote efforts on the media in the external world, particularly with different languages and how to transmit the message either by GCC citizens or by Yemenis to show atrociousness of the violations of human rights committed by the Houthi militias and forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh against Yemenis, Saudis and expatriates in the Kingdom," he added. Answering a question, Al-Toraifi denied reports that the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information has intents to buy foreign media companies' stakes, in order to employ them to voice the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia message, objectively, to the world and to introduce its moderate policies, in all aspects, reaffirming that such a noble goal will be realized through the Saudis themselves, who are determined to do that through, professionally, sending positive message to the world, emphasizing that the real investment is focused on the Saudi media and pointing to the ongoing upgrading of the local media outlets, such as revamping Saudi Press Agency (SPA), which embarked on transmitting in 6 languages, with an intent to raise the number to 10 languages, later on this year and to 20 languages, by the end of the next year. The endeavor will not stop at that point, the Minister added, saying that the final target is add simultaneous translation of the news, a fact that would expand the scope and range of Saudi voice outreach to the world. We have a goal and a plan to transfer news channels into an institution providing media content, in several languages, such as English, Persian and Urdu, he indicated, asserting that the program is under way, to achieve that end, through, already, training courses, he said. The focus is to attach to a main principle of investing in Saudi youth, the two sexes, either the locally qualified ones or those who have been trained, abroad, to undertake the role of voicing the national media message, professionally, and with pride as well as dignity of their motherland, to the world. The Minister hailed existing cooperation between the ministries of Culture and Information and Interior, in terms of monitoring anti-media practices targeting the Kingdom, disseminated by foreign media centers and, ideally, refuting them. GCC member states' ministers of information meeting, he stated, tackled a number of issues today, especially passive messages targeting all of them, aiming to sow sedation among them, sectarian split within member states, calling for attention and being on alert, through spotlighting the machinations and confront them. Al-Toraifi stressed that nowadays, we should rise to level up to the modern media standard, in the GCC member states and replace reacting with taking initiative to direct our messages and back up our policies, in order to reach the whole world, he underscored, concluding that that point was the step agreed upon today, to be discussed during later meetings, similar to this.
