JEDDAH: The Ministry of Culture and Information has formed a high committee to develop the Saudi Broadcasting Corp.’s (SBC) television channels and radio stations.
Dr. Awwad bin Saleh Al-Awwad, minister of culture and information, is heading this development as part of an integrated plan under Vision 2030 to upgrade all Saudi broadcast facilities.
“The Supreme Committee aims to prepare an integrated development plan in cooperation with local and international companies in the field of media and television,” the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
“The committee will work to improve content, develop media facilities, train and qualify cadres, and attract Saudi talent in the media field.”
The announcement was welcomed by Saudi television anchor Khaled Alolaiwi. “Developing Saudi media is important, especially with new challenges in the international arena,” he said.
“We have a lot to tell the world as Saudis. The Kingdom is the cradle of Islam, the birthplace of Arabism and a member of the G-20, so it’s incumbent on us to represent Saudi Arabia in the best way. There’s huge room to improve Saudi media and make it a voice to be heard.”
In the Kingdom, the two main English-language broadcasters are Saudi TV2 and Saudia Radio. According to current and former employees and listeners, they leave a lot to be desired.
“It’s about time for an upgrade,” said Mohammed Rashid, 41, a Saudi information technology assistant who lives in Jeddah.
“The quality of television programs is really bad. All of the programs are old and too family-oriented to be entertaining or even informative. I think the only people who watch or listen to the Saudi channels are people who don’t have a satellite dish or who are still using a coat hanger as an aerial to catch the signal.”
Another common complaint within the SBC is that salaries are low, with a moratorium in place for years that prohibits the hiring of new talent.
With a starting salary of SR2,000 ($533) per month for freelancers at Saudia Radio to read the news on air, and an additional SR2,000 per program, the pay is not too bad, especially if a broadcaster has two or three programs.
But it does not come regularly, resulting in many talented broadcasters leaving their programs and then resigning.
While this reporter was at Saudia Radio, one month’s salary would be paid, then nothing for up to four months, then one or two months’ salary would be paid, killing motivation and creativity. Arab News reached out to the head of Saudia Radio for comment but he declined.
— With additional reporting by Nada Hameed
Committee formed to develop Saudi broadcasting
Committee formed to develop Saudi broadcasting
BBC says will fight Trump's $10 bn defamation lawsuit
LONDON: The BBC said Tuesday it would fight a $10-billion lawsuit brought by US President Donald Trump against the British broadcaster over a documentary that edited his 2021 speech ahead of the US Capitol riot.
“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement sent to AFP, adding the company would not be making “further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, seeks “damages in an amount not less than $5,000,000,000” for each of two counts against the British broadcaster, for alleged defamation and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The video that triggered the lawsuit spliced together two separate sections of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021 in a way that made it appear he explicitly urged supporters to attack the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
The lawsuit comes as the UK government on Tuesday launched the politically sensitive review of the BBC’s Royal Charter, which outlines the corporation’s funding and governance and needs to be renewed in 2027.
As part of the review, it launched a public consultation on issues including the role of “accuracy” in the BBC’s mission and contentious reforms to the corporation’s funding model, which currently relies on a mandatory fee for anyone in the country who watches television.
Minister Stephen Kinnock stressed after the lawsuit was filed that the UK government “is a massive supporter of the BBC.”
The BBC has “been very clear that there is no case to answer in terms of Mr.Trump’s accusation on the broader point of libel or defamation. I think it’s right the BBC stands firm on that point,” Kinnock told Sky News on Tuesday.
Trump, 79, had said the lawsuit was imminent, claiming the BBC had “put words in my mouth,” even positing that “they used AI or something.”
The documentary at issue aired last year before the 2024 election, on the BBC’s “Panorama” flagship current affairs program.
Apology letter
“The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement to AFP.
“The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda,” the statement added.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, whose audience extends well beyond the United Kingdom, faced a period of turmoil last month after a media report brought renewed attention to the edited clip.
The scandal led the BBC director general, Tim Davie, and the organization’s top news executive, Deborah Turness, to resign.
Trump’s lawsuit says the edited speech in the documentary was “fabricated and aired by the Defendants one week before the 2024 Presidential Election in a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.”
The BBC has denied Trump’s claims of legal defamation, though BBC chairman Samir Shah has sent Trump a letter of apology.
Shah also told a UK parliamentary committee last month the broadcaster should have acted sooner to acknowledge its mistake after the error was disclosed in a memo, which was leaked to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The BBC lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal actions Trump has taken against media companies in recent years, several of which have led to multi-million-dollar settlements.
