The Acting Minister of Media of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, presented a proposal regarding the membership of the Executive Office of the Council of Arab Media Ministers, suggesting to add the State of Palestine, the Arab Republic of Egypt as permanent members of the Executive Office, and the presidency holder of the Arab Media Council as a third permanent member of the office during its tenure. At the beginning of his speech at the 51st session of the Council of Arab Media Ministers, held at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo today, Dr. Al-Qasabi conveyed the greetings of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to participants, wishing them every success. Dr. Al-Qasabi also reiterated the keenness of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and His Royal Highness Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, on supporting the joint Arab action in all fields, and cooperation and integration projects and strengthening Arab solidarity at the regional and international levels, to achieve the common aspirations for development, prosperity for the Arab countries and peoples. He cast light on the Palestinian issue as the first Arab priority of concern that is witnessing serious and rapid developments, requiring everybody in our Arab region to make more efforts to increase the international community's awareness of the need to work on reviving the peace process that achieves the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 parallel with East AL-Quds as its capital, in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative. Dr. Al-Qasabi stated that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirms its firm position in support of the Palestinian people and all efforts aimed at reaching a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue, consistent with its belief that peace should be a strategic option to ensure the stability of the region. He pointed out that joint Arab media work faces major challenges in light of the changes the world is currently witnessing, especially the massive and rapid flow of news and the acceleration of events, the multiplicity of knowledge needs of recipients, the growth of digital alternatives to traditional media, and the strong global competition in the fields of media and entertainment. In his speech, Dr. Al-Qasabi stressed that the health, social and economic repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic require the Arab media to play a more effective role in dealing with the disease and achieving the goal of recovering from it, and returning life to normal by urging the public to receive the vaccines, as the most important means of recovery and emphasizing the need to continue adhere to the precautionary measures to ensure the sustainability of the success achieved in the field of raising awareness and coexistence with the pro-corona world. The Acting Minister of Media of Saudi Arabia, host of the annual Islamic pilgrimage gathering of more than two million yearly, clarified that the current health data and the emergence of mutations of the coronavirus require adherence to preventive measures, and from this point of view came the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's decision to limit this year's Hajj to the number of 60,000 pilgrims from within the host country in order to preserve the health and safety of pilgrims, and in order to establish the ritual in a safe health manner applying all precautionary measures. The Minister added that such transformations, changes, and the resulting effects on our Arab societies, require us to take the initiative to activate joint Arab action with practical and operational steps, noting that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia submitted a proposal to author an Arab media strategy to address the coronavirus pandemic and deal with its repercussions, precisely the formation of a joint Arab working group to prepare it under the supervision of the Media and Communication Sector of the general secretariat of the Arab League. In his speech, the Acting Minister of Media stated that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has presented a guiding working paper citing the proposed strategic objectives, tracks and main topics of discussion, and stressing the need for executive initiatives to educate the Arab community about the importance of adhering to precautionary measures and the need to receive the vaccines and refute the false rumors circulated about corona vaccines of various types, and to raise the level of awareness of ways to co-exist in the pro-corona world. As he handed over the presidency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the 50th ordinary session of the Council of Arab Media Ministers, Dr. Al-Qasabi thanked the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and all employees of the General Secretariat for their efforts to serve the joint Arab action. At the conclusion of his speech, the Acting Minister of Media thanked his predecessor the Minister of Information of Iraq and called on the Minister of Culture and Information of the Republic of Sudan, Hamza Balloul Alamir Balloul, to take over the presidency of the 51st ordinary session of the Council, wishing him success in presiding over this session.
