RIYADH: Abdul Aziz Khoja, Minister of Culture and Information, has said that Saudi society faces a range of “cultural challenges”, particularly in the technological age in which “cultures are intertwined”. “It must confront those challenges with its heritage, culture and history,” Khoja said of Saudi society. “We are in a multi-cultural Saudi society and we must respect that and bear it in mind.” The minister, speaking at a symposium on cultural challenges at the Janadriya Festival in Riyadh, said that men and women “through their thoughts and views constitute society equally on the cultural front”. “We hope to see a cultural renaissance project with everyone involved,” Khoja said. “The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has given us all the opportunity and encouraged Saudis, and the Ministry of Culture and Information does not detach itself from figures of culture, who should constitute the cultural vision. The ministry does not interfere with the publishing policy of the press and does not ban articles or subjects and no editor-in-chief has been barred from any journalistic subject.” Also speaking at the symposium, Aziza Al-Mani' said that women face particular cultural challenges because “many of the negative views in society are against them”, before citing the need to protect women from violence, child marriage, and prevention from marriage. Abdullah Al-Buraidi said there is a “lack of a national cultural project” and described Saudi society as “afflicted by social hypocrisy”. “There is no professional evaluation of the Saudi press, and it has become just a bunch of shops for adverts,” he said. Khalid Al-Faram, deputy editor-in-chief of Okaz newspaper, said the official press had lost 50 percent of its audience due to the “Arab political situation” and its effects on the performance of the media. “Facebook and Twitter now have larger audiences than the press,” he said. “The Arabic media needs restructuring and to regain the confidence of its audience and put an end to the problem of poor quality staff by investing in human resources”. “It needs to move on from the prevailing media thought,” he said. “The new generation requires a different language and a more open system.”
