Media Forum urges proper HR policies to develop professionals

The Arab Media Forum 2007, organized by Dubai Press Club, opened today at Madinat Jumeirah with experts highlighting the importance of training and re-training media professionals to meet challenges of the information and technology explosion.More than 500 Editors-in-Chief of major regional and global print and the broadcast media, as well as leading journalists, columnists, academics, analysts, commentators and senior government officials attended the first segment on 'Developing People, Developing Region'.

The Arab Media Forum 2007 is being held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai. The two-day event is built around the theme of "Developing People, Developing Organizations". In his opening address, Mohammed Ghubash, Media Specialist and Moderator of the first session highlighted the ongoing revolution in the media sector. However, other speakers during the session said control over media in the Arab world still exists, and called for greater freedom of expression.

Rafic Khoury, Editor-in-Chief of Al Anwar Newspaper in Lebanon, said: "I hope we can liberate media from control of owners and governments. Social, financial and political freedom is needed to develop the media."We write reports to please others and not to inform readers.If there is no political freedom, how can there be a successful media?" Saad Al Ajmi, former Kuwaiti Minister of Information, spoke about the information revolution with which the media is inextricably linked. He added: "The emergence of low cost access to media, the phenomenon of bloggers and the information boom has restricted the ability of traditional sources of control." However, Al Ajmi criticized the Arab education system for not facilitating the development of media professionals. He called for the protection of those working in the media and added that in order to be successful, media must be empowered to take decisions, even when the facts are not 100 per cent authentic. Salah Eddin Hafez, Secretary General of the Federation of Arab Journalists, Egypt listed five conditions needed for the Arab media to develop effectively.Hafez said the conditions included guarantee of the right environment for freedom of expression, proper and effective management of media and adequate human resources policies.Hafez also called for training and re-training programmes and urged the effective use of tools and resources of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).The Arab Media Forum, being organized since 2001, is designed to open channels of dialogue between Arab and Western media in order to promote better understanding amongst different schools of thought worldwide. Source