Jordanian-Saudi media figures call for increased cooperation to highlight ‘shared’ positions

AMMAN — Jordanian and Saudi media figures, journalists and opinion leaders on Tuesday night discussed means to advance cooperation in various media fields to illustrate the two countries' shared positions and existing cooperation.

The roundtable session, organised by the Saudi embassy in Amman on the sidelines of the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the deputy prime minister and minister of defence to Jordan, witnessed the participation of Minister of State for Media Affairs Faisal Shboul, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Wednesday.

Shboul, who is also government's spokesperson, stressed the importance of the visit's topic and timing that came amid “tough regional conditions” and challenges that necessitate enhancing communication between both countries' leaderships and media figures.

He also highlighted that there is a joint special committee on media, which includes Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as well as other Arab League countries. He said that the committee is meant to “protect the media and develop common rules for dealing with social media platforms”.   

Lauding the historic Jordanian–Saudi relations, Shboul called for scaling up efforts to unify the two kingdoms' positions over the issues that affect them.

Khalid Bin Hamed Al Malik, chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Journalists Association, highlighted the need to enhance media relations and “press forward” to realise media achievements that could serve common interests, noting that "there are wide areas of cooperation between news agencies, television channels and the press”.