RIYADH: A Ministry of Justice forum opened Sunday titled “The Judiciary and The Media”, held in order to “build bridges between the two sectors” and saw both the ministers of Justice and Culture and Information speak on a range of issues concerning the relationship between the press coverage and the legal system. Muhammad Al-Issa, Minister of Justice, said that the judiciary had “no fear of the media” and that both the judiciary and the press sought “transparency”. “The media is not allowed to speak on cases which are still being looked at, and open trials are held but are only allowed to be written about once they have concluded,” Al-Issa said in his speech at the opening of the forum. “Cases involving personal issues require confidentiality.” The minister said that the media would be allowed to attend trials of persons involved in cases of terrorism and national security. “We trust our judiciary and our procedures, and we welcome the presence of journalists at judicial proceedings,” he added. On judicial cases involving issues of press publication, Al-Issa said that “anyone who believes they do not come under the authority of judges is mistaken”. “The Media Committee at the Ministry of Culture and Information is the committee that receives complaints against anything published, and what it produces is not a judicial ruling,” he said. “It is an administrative decision, and that decision, if not found satisfactory by any of the parties involved in the case, goes to the administrative judiciary, which will annul the decision if it deems it unsuitable.” He added that “hundreds of cases” had been resolved by the committee “in a satisfactory and amicable way”. “The judiciary values the message of the media, and anyone that thinks there is some kind of tension or grudge is hugely overblowing things,” he said. Al-Issa said that the judiciary would be in contact with the media to create a “specialized judicial media” that will “serve both the judicial and media authorities”. “This is needed to plug the gap and address shortcomings and taking things out of context,” he said. “A specialized judicial media is important. Only someone specialized in legal issues and practiced in judicial media should cover them.” Al-Issa described the media as standing out for its “reasonableness, not making things up and its lack of childishness”. “The presence at this forum of the media elite is due to our sense of their importance, not to try and befriend them,” he said. Abdul Aziz Khoja, Minister of Culture and Information, said there was “important and strategic” cooperation between his ministry and the Ministry of Justice, and saw similarities in both their roles by declaring that the “word is like the sword”. “The media and the judiciary both pursue truth and justice, and seek to reveal the truth and expose error, particularly in our increasingly complicated societies,” Khoja said. “The media is a platform which speaks as it wishes, and consequently has a great responsibility.” He said that the “correct word should be used at the right time”. “The word here is like gold, and can have an effect on society, can lift one person and bring another down,” he said. In respect of press coverage of judicial cases, Minister Khoja said that all newspapers had been instructed to not cover cases still under review. “That can affect the reputation of the people involved and be detrimental to their futures.” Khoja said that issues concerning media publication go to the Media Committee at his ministry. “It is a committee composed from the ministries of Interior and Justice, and it performs its role,” he said. Khoja also spoke on the new forms of media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and a world of views “we might like and we might not like”. “If the correct use is applied, they will constitute a mirror for the true image of society,” he said, and concluded: “Journalists male and female, in the press, television or on the Internet, have a great responsibility.”
