Pakistan, Saudi Arabia sign MoU for collaboration in media
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Thursday inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop and promote close linkages and collaboration between print and electronic media of the two friendly countries to promote bilateral relations and depict a true image of Islam to the world.
In this regard, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan and Minister for Information & Culture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz bin Moyayuddin Khoja formally signed the MoU at a special ceremony held here at Benazir Bhutto Shaheed International Airport.
Saudi Ambassador Abdul Aziz bin Ibrahim Al-Ghadeer, Managing Director APP Rao Tehseen Ali Khan, MD PTV Yousaf Baig Mirza, MD Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) Murtaza Solangi and officials of the Information ministry and Saudi Embassy were also present.
Later, addressing a joint press conference, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that this MoU would go a long way in fortifying and boosting the historic friendly relations between the two brotherly nations.
Elabourating salient features of the MoU, the minister said that she was indebted to the personal interest taken by Khadim- ul-Harmain Al-Sharifain King Abdul Aziz for materialising this agreement to further cement the bonds between the two countries.
She said that Imam of Ka’aba and Princess Adila, the daughter of Khadim-ul-Harmain Al-Sharifain King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who was visiting Pakistan on invitation of first lady to promote interfaith harmony and cooperation in women segments.
Referring to the successful visit by the Saudi information minister, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that the contributions by the Saudi minister would go a long way in boosting bilateral relations in media and culture.
“Under this MoU, the PTV and Saudi state-run television would produce joint productions and documentaries besides sharing news and sports. This would help provide first-hand information about Pakistan to the 1.5 million overseas Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia,” she said.
The minister added that the MoU would also enable Radio Pakistan to sensitise the overseas Pakistanis about Saudi laws in urdu language bridging the bar of language which would remove the language barrier for Pakistanis in Saudia. She said the radio stations of both countries would also share the news content besides other productions.
The minister said that Saudi news agency and APP would also collaborate and exchange the news content under the new MoU, the agreement signed in 2005 between both the ministries has been revived.
“We have improved the agreement signed in 2005 for news sharing between APP and Saudi news agency. Now we would fully implement it as new terms of engagement have been reached mutually. Now both the news agencies would establish their bureau offices in Riyadh and Islamabad to promote true picture of bilateral culture and peoples of both countries,” maintained the minister.
She said that Pakistan, Saudi Media Forum would also be established under the MoU in the non-government sector and individuals from civil society would be taken to run the forum.
“One chapter each of this forum would be established in Islamabad and Riyadh which would work for perception management of religion of Islam so as true image of Muslims is reflected in the western media. We would also engage western media outlets as partners to revive the image of Muslim Ummah,” she added.
This forum would also devise media communication strategy to promote exchange in the fields of culture, youth, women and other segments.
The Saudi Information Minister said that Pakistan and Saudi
Arabia were brotherly countries and the MoU would help boost these historic ties.
He said Khadim-ul-Harmain al-Sharifain had a special focus towards media and has given special instructions to him to visit Pakistan and ensure boosting bilateral relations in the media field.
He said effective collaboration between the two countries might help reflect the true image of Islam. He hoped that the MoU would help achieve the desired objectives.
He said that collaboration between Pakistan and Saudi TV would help strengthen people-to-people bilateral relations and exchange of media delegations would continue.
He said exchange of news content between Saudi news agency and APP would enable better news dissemination. He said that collaboration between ministries of culture of both countries would also help the cause as both countries had a shared cultural heritage.
He hoped that Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan would soon visit Saudi Arabia to further boost the bilateral relations between both the countries in the field of information and media.
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