Under the chairmanship of host country, Bahrain, the Arab information ministers council held its 47th ordinary meeting in Manama in the attendance of Arab League Secretary General Dr. Nabil Al-Arabi and representatives of a number of unions and organizations practicing media jobs within the Arab information ministers council. Dr. Adel bin Zaid Altoraifi, the Minister of Culture and Information of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, led his country's delegation to the meeting. Addressing the meeting, he conveyed, in a speech before the opening ceremony, the greetings of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to the participants, wishing them every success. The minister confirmed the keenness of the Kingdom on a prosperous future for the Arab media, to reach cooperation and integration in the service of the aspirations of the Arab peoples as to what achieves their security and stability and stand united in the face of challenges facing the Arab nation, including heinous crimes aiming to wedge sedition, chaos and fracture in the Arab fixture and against whoever tries to spread skepticism in the Arab and Islamic values and pillars. He drew the attention to taking care of the electronic media as priority. He said many issues remain to be poised for discussion at today's meeting, citing the support for comprehensive development, combating of terrorism, a follow-up of the foreign-oriented Arab media plan, and the Arab media strategy. For his part, Ali Al-Rumaihi, Minister in charge of information of the Kingdom of Bahrain, who is the rotatory chairman of this round, demanded the activation of the Arab media strategy to fight terrorism, extremism and violence. He attributed what he called the media chaos to the weakness of value-and-ethical pilars of the media organizations, or misusing the freedom of expression granted to the media as, some of them, started to release harmful rumors, threaten the Arab national security and contradict the public order, noting the importance of using innovative ways to confront such challenges. He called on stopping the media channels who manage to spread notions encouraging religious hatred, sectarianism and extremism and terror. He also called for filing suits against media outlets who manage to attack Arab countries, calling on them to abide by the international civil and political rights which prohibit calling for hatred and terrorism. He expressed pride of the participation of the Arab coalition in defending the Arab national security and Arab unity. Other speakers were Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber, Chairman of the National Council for Information of the United Arab Emirates, and Dr. Al-Arabi who was honored by the conference to mark the end of his tenure and secretary general of the Arab League. Also honored were several journalists, media martyrs and media institutions in addition to the best photographer and columnist. for 2016.
