Thursday 25 / April / 2024
Muscat: Seven themes specified by the Majlis Al Shura in the media field covering all the details, in addition to the key achievements made by the Ministry during last few years, were covered in a statement of the Ministry of Information, Dr. Abdul Munim bin Mansour Al Hasani Minister of Information, said.
He pointed out that since the beginning of the blessed Renaissance, the Omani media has and is still making great efforts to illuminate citizens, educate them and convey the facts about the ongoing local, regional and international events.
The statement covered seven themes, the Omani Media, the e-Media, Training and Rehabilitation of National Manpower, the New Omani Media Policy, the Foreign Media, the Media Attaches, the Media Investment and the Ministry and Civil Society Organisations.
He said the first theme covers the status of the Omani media in terms of vision, aims, implementation mechanisms, challenges and aspirations. The second theme, new media, covers the efforts made by the Ministry of information in addressing the new media guided by the principles and values of the Omani society. The third theme highlights the training and rehabilitation of national cadres (the Ministry’s programmes and efforts to training and rehabilitating the Omani media cadres and improve their skills and performance.
The fourth theme covers the Omani media policy - the role of Oman News Agency and Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising in implementing the media policy. The fifth theme on the media attachés covers the role played by them in conveying the Sultanate’s media message to the world.
The sixth theme highlights the private investments in media (the Ministry’s programmes and mechanisms to encourage private investment in media). The seventh and last theme focuses on the role of the Ministry in supporting civil society organisations.
The theme reviews the efforts made by the Ministry to support the efforts of the relevant civil society organisations. During its 18th regular sessions of the third annual sitting (2017-2018), Majlis Al Shura hosted Dr. Abdul Munim bin Mansour Al Hasani, Minister of Information to discuss the Ministry statement.
He said on the directive of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Information has formed a committee under the chairmanship of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information and the membership of media experts and law professors from Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) to revise the media law. The committee has submitted a draft media law that takes into consideration the e-publishing and the changes in the media fields.
The statement added that the Ministry has implemented a number of key projects and initiatives the most important of which are completing the e-transformation project through launching a media portal that will be a reliable source of accurate information about the Sultanate. The multi-lingual portal will be launched in the coming months with the number of languages to reach 10 in 2022. He also highlighted the media presence in the different social media means using the accounts of the Ministry and Oman News Agency. He touched on the support provided to the other media organizations in coordination with the public communication center.
The Sultanate witnesses many important events that have become the headlines for many local, GCC, Arab, regional and international newspapers, as well as social networks, he added.
The Minister of Information also touched on the efforts done by the media attachés to convey the Sultanate’s media message to the world countries, as well as their role in the countries where they are.
The statement pointed out that the Ministry in coordination with a number of public and private organizations considers a proposal to build a smart media city that can be an incubator for art production, film-making, public relations and advertising, as well as printing press and publishing houses. The smart media city can also play a role in attracting international specialized companies to share experiences with them.
The statement affirmed that the Ministry attaches great care to the private media organizations in the Sultanate and considers the private media complimentary and supportive to the public media. The Ministry is making efforts to ensure that the media outputs and materials by these organisations are of high quality, focus on the highlighting development efforts and discuss the various issues of interest for the Omani society.
