The Minister of Government Communication and official spokesperson for the government, Faisal Shboul, joined his counterparts on Wednesday in the fifty-third session of the Council of Arab Ministers of Information in the Moroccan capital, Rabat. During his address at the meeting, Minister Shboul highlighted the Arab nation’s ongoing struggle to catch up with international counterparts in the quest for digital sovereignty, and the struggle to safeguard the interests of Arab societies in an increasingly self-centered world. “In our nation, approximately 175 million people are internet users, both positively and negatively contributing to Arabic content,” he stated, “and this results in billions of dollars of income on global social networks.” Shboul also brought to light the economic imbalances in the digital sphere, where $116 million is projected to leave even small Arab advertising markets like Jordan’s for international media companies in 2022. The overall contribution from the Arab advertising market to these companies exceeds $2 billion annually. Drawing attention to the potential risks of social media platforms, he highlighted issues like the dissemination of free content, hate speech, infringement of privacy, especially targeting vulnerable groups like children and women, and the spread of false information. Shboul emphasized that this analysis was part of a collective Arab endeavor to tackle these growing challenges, taking cues from global experiences, with a particular focus on European strategies. He revealed that following a mandate from the Council of Arab Ministers of Information, Jordan had prepared a unified Arab strategy and a draft law to negotiate with international media companies. He explained, “Jordan prepared the draft and dispatched a delegation to Germany to understand its experience in dealing with international media companies and learn about legislative and procedural policies at the European Union level.” Shboul affirmed that the Arab nations held significant negotiating power in front of international media companies, which could be used to reclaim lost rights on political issues such as the Palestinian issue, Islamophobia, and the preservation of Arab culture and language. The Minister proposed the creation of an Arab technical team to devise a negotiation mechanism based on the unified strategy and guiding law and initiate negotiations with international media companies. In his address, Shboul extended his gratitude to the Kingdom of Morocco for hosting the meetings and commended the Arab Republic of Egypt for its efforts during its presidency of the fifty-second session of the Council of Arab Information Ministers. On the sidelines of the meeting, Shboul met his Libyan counterpart, Minister of State for Communication and Political Affairs Walid Al-Lafi. They discussed potential areas for cooperation between the two nations in the fields of media and communication. Minister Al-Lafi expressed an interest in learning from the Jordanian experience in media and communication and fostering personnel training in these areas.
Source: Jordan News Agency