Shemrani, General Secretary of Makkah Center for Arbitration and Conciliation, has urged media personnel to participate in a program “How to be an international arbitrator” scheduled for Saturday, May 23. As many as 100 Saudi journalists including part-time media personnel will attend the program, which aims at creating awareness of various cyber crimes. This program comes in the wake of a report published by an online news website accusing some women media personnel of holding immoral gatherings with prominent newspaper personalities. “We aim to have those who misuse the Internet by publishing false information face the consequences of their actions,” said Al-Shemrani. People generally have no idea about the punishment for publishing false reports over the net in a bid to defame others, particularly their female co-workers, he said. Speaking about various cyber crimes that are often taken lightly, Al-Shemrani said that illegally accessing a computer network or a computer hardware system was also a cognizable offense. “Under the relevant Saudi laws, a person found guilty of publishing false information to defame a person gets one year in jail and faces fines of up to SR500,000,” he said.
