Recommendations of the regional conference:”Role of the Free Arab Media in Economic Development”Sanaa, 13-15 September 2003-09-15 [Archives:2003/669/Reportage]

We, the participants in the regional conference “Role of the Free Arab Media in Economic Development” that was held during 13-15 September 2003, have come from a number of Arab countries including the host country, the Republic of Yemen, to study the means on how to build bridges and establish a partnership between the Arab media and the Arab governments towards achieving economic development.
We do understand that the Arab media however is still deprived from its total freedom in many ways and believe that the Arab governments can do more to allow more freedom for the media. This is needed so that the Arab media can indeed take part in economic development.
We also seize this opportunity to express our solidarity with all Arab journalists in prison everywhere in the world, and we specify the distinguished journalists who were able to carry out their duties professionally and were unfortunately taken to prison. Among those journalists is Taiseer Allouni, the prominent correspondent of Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel. We call upon all international and Arab organizations defending human rights and freedom of the press to pressurize the Spanish government to set him free and work on preventing such practices that hinder freedom of the press all over the world.
We also realize that in today's world, the media has become quite powerful and an effective tool for change. We see however that the Arab media has lagged behind compared to media in most of the world. We can see how Western media has become quite influential in political, economic, social, and other aspects globally, and we do realize that much can be done to enhance Arab media to play a greater role, specifically in economic development.
We are also confident that the priority of all governments of the world, including Arab governments, that the priority right now is economic development to enhance all other walks of life.

Hence, and in order to achieve partnership towards development, we came out with the following recommendations:
– Working on demolishing all barriers between us and decision-makers in Arab governments.
– Encouraging Arab governments to allow more freedom for the print and electronic press for them to play a greater role in economic development
– Stressing on the importance of respecting Arab journalists and appreciate their role in society for their significant role in presenting accurate information to the public.
– Encouraging governments not to monopolize advertisement material to official media only.
– Having the government issue clear orders to all authorities and police forces not to arrest or harass journalists while doing their work, and if there is anything against them, they should be referred to the journalists syndicate in their country.
– Exerting more efforts to establish printing presses to print unofficial newspapers and publications without being influenced by any side. Such facilities should be available at the journalists' syndicates in Arab countries and print in return of minimal prices.
– Having Arab media establishments cooperate with Arab governments to identify the difficulties faced by Arab journalists including punishment laws and other press regulations that hinder their freedom and prevent them from supporting economic development.
– Holding periodic meetings among journalists under the umbrella of the journalists' syndicates to enhance their work environment and capabilities and discuss the difficulties they face.
– Encouraging Arab governments to provide statistics and other information to journalists transparently and directly and respond positively whenever possible to interview requests to provide accurate information to the public.
– Establishing an independent body or a study center that carries out studies and economic researches and reports on negative phenomena including corruption or mismanagement to the authorities, which should then act upon the provided information accordingly.
– Continuing efforts to draft a common salary/payment scheme for Arab journalists.
– Thinking seriously about establishing media enterprises with capital provided by Arab investors or businessmen to achieve self-dependent professional media organizations.
– Working on establishing Non Governmental Organizations specialized in supporting media in general, and economic media in particular.
– Contacting the Arab Journalists Federation and proposing to establish an Arab business editors committee working to enhance quality and productivity of media establishments in economic coverage.
– Holding meetings and sessions with representatives of Arab, European, and International organizations concerned with the press, and contacting international organizations such as the UN, World Bank, International Monetary Fund to come up with possible cooperation agreement and get useful information and statistics.
– Organizing specialized training courses and workshops on professional business journalism to reflect the actual and accurate status of Arab countries' economies.
– Concentrating on media reports and analysis stories about the economic conditions in the Arab world, and the pace of economic development of Arab countries independently and as a whole.
– Having the media hold meetings with chambers of commerce of the Arab world to discuss appropriate steps to be taken on behalf of the media to assist in economic reform and development.
– Encouraging Arab governments to follow reports and stories published or broadcast in the Arab media and archive them for future reference, while having journalists commit themselves to answer questions regarding such reports in any possible way.
– Strengthening cooperation among Arab media and have them learn from each other.
– Learning from experiences of international or more modern news networks and media enterprises by exchanging visits and ideas.
– Working on providing more coverage of investment opportunities in the Arab world.
– Encouraging and appreciating efforts such as that of Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel in presenting news coverage honestly, accurately and professionally and encouraging others to follow suit.
– Holding similar conferences and meetings to strengthen cooperation between the Arab media and governments towards achieving faster economic growth in the Arab world.

Participants in the regional conference
“Role of the Free Arab Media in Economic Development”
Sanaa, 15 September 2003
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