Mohammed Fahad Al-Harthi, President of the Saudi Media Awards, announced a formation of the Board of Directors for the awards, which will oversee the awards' general rules and regulations, ensure its independence, and professionalism. In a statement to Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Al-Harthi also announced that the board is composed of writer Samir Atallah, Sami Al-Nusif, the former Kuwaiti Minister of Information, Dr. Hashem Abdo Hashem former editor-in-chief of Okaz newspaper, writer Dr. Khairiya Al-Saqqaf, writer Dr. Faten Shaker, Mohammed Altunisi General Manager of MBC Group, in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Jamal bin Huwaireb, Cultural Advisor to the Government of Dubai and Director of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cultural Foundation, Dr. Diaa Rashwan President of the Egyptian Press Syndicate, Dr. Fayez al-Shehri a member of the Shura Council, Dr. Othman Al-Sini, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Watan Newspaper, and Mohammed Fahad Al-Harthi. He added that the board will have a supervisory role on the award and its categories, an umbrella that deals with the guidelines of the award's policies. He pointed out that the judging is independent as a committee has been set up for each category of the awards, to evaluate the nominated materials according to quality standards, excellence and innovation. Al-Harthi points out that the intention for the award is to be a distinguished media recognition on a global scale, indicating that the committee has received dozens of nominations from institutions and individuals, which reflect existence of high competencies in the field of media, that need to be honored and shed light on. He added that submissions are open until the seventh of October. He said that the Saudi Media Award is one of the initiatives launched by the Saudi Journalists Association, which aims to develop media content, especially as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has outstanding media competencies and deserves recognition. He pointed out that the award is one of the means to develop the media system in the Kingdom, to stimulate competition and professional creativity, and honor creators. Al-Harthi pointed out that each category of the awards has an independent jury that sets the evaluation according to specific professional standards. He considered that the launch of the award is an important step in the Saudi media process which is witnessing changes and huge challenges in the media industry. He pointed out that the awards will be annual and its distribution coincides with the activities of the Saudi Media Forum. Al-Harthi praised the reaction the award received from the media, which was reflected in the turnout for the nomination for the awards, especially to include the different outlets of media from readable, audio, and visual. He said that the award body examined global and regional awards in the media sector and has benefited from previous experiences, and made sure to set standards consistent with professionalism, excellence and individuality, and categories of the award will be reviewed for any relevant additions annually by the Board of Directors. The awards has six categories, namely: Journalism, which includes (political, economic, cultural, social, investigative, sports, image and cartoon). The visual production includes under its umbrella two branches (TV Report and Television Dialogue). The production of audio has one branch (the public dialogue), media application, entrepreneurial media, and public media figure of the year. Individuals working in Saudi media organizations have the right to run in their branches. Saudi media organizations are also entitled to nominate any of their employees in any of the awards' branches, except for the public media figure of the Year, which is selected by the awards' Board of Directors.
