DOHA: The GCC countries have decided to launch a joint media strategy to counter the challenges being posed by suspected extremist groups and ideologies. The idea is to counter the impact of these ideologies within the GCC states as well as outside and cleanse the image of Muslims and Islam. As a first step a common website is being developed in collaboration with the GCC Secretariat-General.
The website will act as a point of reference on behalf of the member-countries of the GCC for credible information on the lines of a similar portal of European Union (EU) countries. GCC information ministers meeting in Kuwait decided yesterday to hold a regional conference of media and other experts, academicians and senior government officials.
The idea of the convention to be held sooner rather than later is to prepare ground for developing a joint GCC media strategy to counter extremists’ propaganda and ideologies within the region and outside, Al Sharq reported yesterday. The Ministers have also decided to set up a committee comprising undersecretaries from their ministries.
The job of this panel will be to follow up on a study that was conducted to determine the role of the media in the GCC in combating the impact of extremist ideologies and their propaganda.
The members of the committee have been asked to present on an urgent basis proposals as to what steps should be taken to launch a common GCC media campaign against such extremist propaganda and ideologies.
The campaign will also focus on how to cleanse the image of Islam and Muslims that is being damaged by some suspected extremist groups, their propaganda and ideologies. The information ministers decided that the special teams that was set up earlier to monitor some local TV channels that were suspected to be supported by Iran, be disbanded since their work was over. The next meeting of the information ministers of the GCC states is scheduled to be held in October 2015 in Doha.
Qatar doesn’t have an information ministry and rather has a ministry of culture, arts and heritage.
Bahrain conducted a study on social networking sites (in the GCC states) and the information ministers decided to refer it to a regional electronic media committee.
The panel will peruse the study and do the needful and perhaps prepare a report and present it to the information ministers of the member states.
At yesterday’s meeting in Kuwait, the information ministers agreed that it is important to develop rules of ethics for the electronic media (arguably, including social media) in the region. Bahrain agreed to frame a draft of the rules, Al Sharq said in its report. The Peninsula
