This year's Arab Media Forum intends to handle some of the most talked about issues of the regional media as part of the three workshops during the Forum to be held on May 11 and 12 in Dubai.

Maryam Bin Fahad, Executive Director, Dubai Press Club (DPC), said the workshops at the Forum this year have been designed in a way that would ensure a thorough discussion of all the relevant aspects of the television media in the region, particularly the content that the TV channels offer to the public and the unprecedented boom in the past two years that resulted in a mushrooming of channels. "The speakers that address these three workshops include senior executives of some channels and renowned experts from the region's media industry," she disclosed.

The first workshop at the Forum is titled "Egyptian TV Channels: Will They Restore Glory to the Egyptian Media?" and will look at the immense growth of private channels in Egypt in recent times. New channels and new media faces have emerged, as well as bold programmes that deal with Egyptian and Arab issues with grit and professionalism. In view of the importance of this development, the Forum is aiming to shed light on the television map of Egypt, which is apparently giving a new shape to the profession of media in Egypt and the region.

The panelists at the workshop, which will be moderated by Husain Abdul Ghani, Manager, Al Jazeerah Office, Cairo, will be Mohammed Abdul Mu'tal, Chairman, Al Hayat Television Network, Egypt; Husain Ratib, Board Chairman, Al Mihwar TV; Osama Al Sheikh, Chairman, Nile Television Network, Egypt and Yasmin Abdullah, CEO, OTV.

The second workshop will seek to take up another salient feature on the television scene in the region: the proliferation of fatwa programs. Titled "From Terrestrial Fatwa to Satellite Fatwa", the workshop will look at the phenomenon of instant fatwa, an issue that raises a number of questions about the credibility and propriety of this whole exercise.

Moderated by Khadeeja Bin Genna from Al Jazeerah TV, the workshop will be addressed by Dr Ahmed Al Haddad, Director, Fatwa Authority, Dubai; Salman Al Odah, Chairman, Al Dalil TV, Saudi Arabia; Jamil Al Dhiyabi, Editorial General Manager for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, Al Hayat newspaper; Dr Abdul Hamid Al Ansari, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of  Qatar and Fahad Al Shmaimari, Board Chairman and General Manager, Al Majd TV, Saudi Arabia.

The third workshop on "Popular Heritage Channels: Message or Entertainment?" will analyse the emergence of channels devoted to popular heritage in the Arab world, particularly in the Gulf countries.

Though they are winning viewers increasingly and their popularity is on the rise, some of them are allegedly going beyond their original objective of creating awareness about national heritage among the new generations.

They either convert heritage-related concepts into mere entertainment and recreation, or rake up sectarian issues, regional disputes and tribal animosities, leading to the destruction of national unity and harmony in some Arab countries. The workshop will be moderated by Safiya Al Shehi, Presenter, Sama Dubai and addressed by Dr Kamal Abdul Latif, Writer and Academic, Morocco; Sultan Al Umaimi, Director, Poetry Academy, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage; Naser Al Qahtani, Chairman, Al Saha TV, Saudi Arabia and Naser al Ubudi, Secretary, UAE Writers' Union.

The Arab Media Forum is the Middle East's most prominent media event every year that started in 2001 and it has facilitated in-depth debates and exchange of ideas on the media in the Middle East.

 

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