Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Minister of Culture and Information Abdul Aziz Khoja said during a meeting at the Riyadh Book Fair that he would not refuse to appoint a woman as an editor in chief should media institutions so recommend. He stressed that qualifications and not gender is what would govern the matter.
The editor in chief of Shams newspaper, Khalid Al-Darraj, disagreed. He pointed out that leadership jobs, particularly in the media, relied on the ability to have space and opportunity for traveling, late meetings and being on the move much of the time that would naturally limit a woman “in a conservative society such as ours.”
He said in the Arab media, women in the most senior positions were very few in number. “In the last 30 years, in the Kingdom, very few women have attained the position of editor which tells us a lot about the jobs and opportunities for women in general,” Al-Darraj said.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - The omission for want of space of about 50 percent of the publishing houses which applied to participate in the Riyadh Book Fair has come in for severe criticism. “The excuse of lack of space for depriving these publishing houses of an opportunity to display their titles at the fair does not hold water,” Dr. Muhammad Al-Herfi, a noted columnist, has said.
Dr. Al-Herfi and Dr. Abdullah Faifi, head of the Media and Culture Committee at the Shoura Council, also said that the cultural program of the Riyadh Book Fair needs more diversity in order to increase the chances of its success.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Electronic Resources Ltd., bagged the fourth FM radio license in the Kingdom. The company's bid for the new radio channel amounted to SR68 million. Dr. Abdul Aziz Khoja, Minister of Culture and Information, made the announcement in this regard at a ceremony held here at the King Fahd Cultural Center, Saturday.
Khoja said that one more FM radio license would be awarded within the next two weeks.
The first-ever FM radio license worth SR75 million went to the media alliance of Alf Alf, which would allow it to broadcast from 30 locations in the Kingdom. The second license worth SR66 million went to Ghayat Al-Ibdah company and the third one worth SR76,350 million was awarded to Rotana, the Arabic Music Gateway.
Over 73 percent of people in Saudi Arabia listen to radio programs, with over half of them tuning into radio on a daily basis, mostly while driving, according to a new study by the Arab Advisers Group.
Dr Ismail Badawi
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Rotana Audio Visual company, owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has won a license to operate the Kingdom’s third FM radio station at a cost of SR67.35 million. Nine companies had bid to win the license, including Saudi Specialized Publishing Co., an affiliate of the Saudi Research & Marketing Group, Arab Radio and Television Network run by Saleh Kamel, Shams alliance, Noor Telecommunications Co. alliance, Al-Jazirah Newspaper alliance, Fal alliance, Al-Mawarid Electronic Co. alliance and Al-Wataniah Advertising and Publishing alliance.
Research by the Arab Advisers Group reveal that close to 82 percent of Saudis listen to FM radio, 54 percent of them on a daily basis.
Saudi Arabia - Blogger Ahmed Al-Omran is not a household name outside of Saudi Arabia. Neither is Eman Al Nafjan, a 31-year-old mother of three, whose Saudi Woman's Web Blog in English has a solid, growing base of 500 visitors a day. And few outsiders may have heard of Basma Al-Mutlaq, whose English-language blog, Saudi Amber, advocates an end to what Eman Al Nafjan calls the kingdom's "gender apartheid".
But within the kingdom, such bloggers are Internet stars. Readers and fans flood the Internet with spirited, supportive and angry commentary that is expanding the limits of what can be spoken about in this conservative, traditionally closed and painfully diplomatic society.
While the Saudi Ministry of Interior sees the Internet mostly as a threat — the nation's top venue for the recruitment of young Saudis to the ranks of Al Qaeda — thousands of open-minded young Saudis have embraced the blogosphere to shatter the silence about problems long considered taboo. [edited for space]
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - Saudi authorities have closed down the Riyadh office of a television channel because it promotes tribal loyalties and thus poses a threat to the unity of the country’s tribal-based society, officials said. The Riyadh office of the Al Saha channel, popular among Bedouins for content that includes camel shows and poetry, was closed down after the ministry of information and culture received numerous complaints from the public who felt the channel promoted tribal rather than national affiliation, the Al Riyadh newspaper reported on Wednesday.
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