Ministry to keep tab on contents of media

To be done in coordination with various government agencies

Manama

The Ministry of Information Affairs will keep an eye on the contents of local as well as international media to ensure that the media houses project the true development achieved by Bahrain.

Addressing media yesterday after the weekly Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Information Affairs Minister, Isa bin Abdulrahman Al-Hammadi said that the media-monitoring job would be done in coordination with various government agencies.

The Minister said that the government would take all necessary actions to deal with local media, which publish wrong information about the Kingdom. “Even the international media will also be contacted if they give inaccurate information about Bahrain,” he said.

The Minister said that the government had established laws in 2002 to regulate media in the Kingdom. “If needed, the Kingdom will enact more laws.”

The Information Affairs Minister said that the current Press Law did not apply to social media. The new laws, which will be enacted in future, will bring social media under Press Law. “But currently there are enough laws to deal with violations made by the social media users,” he said.

He said that the Ministry of Interior would create laws to tackle the violations committed on social media. Later the law will be presented to the Public Prosecution. In this regard, the role of the Information Affairs Authority (IAA) is to coordinate with the Interior Ministry.

“If anyone notices violations on social media, he/she can bring it to the notice of the person concerned. We have to use the social media in a right way,” he remarked. 

Stalled projects

Commenting on the stalled projects, Al-Hammadi said that the government was studying all stalled projects in the Kingdom.

 “Many small and large scale investors have contacted the authorities. First, we have to deal with large projects. Later, medium and small-scale investors will be given prominence. The priority of the government is to protect the interest of the investors,” the Minister added.