Does the government need a Ministry of Communication to organize its public performance, deliver its messages, and control the movement of its actors, to confront the public, or to respond to it? The answer, of course, is yes.

Does the official (and perhaps semi-official) media need a ministry that facilitates access to information, provides it with the support it needs, relieves it from the stress of its crises, and coordinates with the union under whose umbrella its workers fall? The answer is yes, but it is conditioned by many considerations, which the journalists and the ministry know as well.

A third question: Does the state need a Ministry of Communication that directs its public discourse, unifies it, presents its stories and narratives, interacts with its media and its public, and serves as a lever for its decisions and policies, and a title to know its achievements? The answer is yes, the state needs a media kitchen, which assumes the task of managing the official media discourse, so that the official narrative appears as the sole representative of the state’s discourse and messages.

The ministry, now, has become a reality, its minister (the friend Faisal Al-Shaboul) emerged from the womb of the media, as well as its secretary-general (the friend Dr. Zaid Al-Nawaisa), one of the respected columnists, and it is waiting for its structures and staff to be completed, so that we can follow up on its performance and judge it. I know The task is difficult, but the wager remains based on its success on two issues: one is its ability to open up and communicate with the media body and the media spirit, and the second is to provide it with the necessary competencies and information, then delegate it to manage the media scene as a sole reference, away from any interference.

Just as a reminder, we had a Ministry of Information that was abolished in 2003, and we had a Supreme Council for Media that lasted only about seven years, then we started the experiment of a “state” minister for information affairs, and in the meantime we had independent institutions from the Ministry of Communication, forming arms of the Media Department, or supervise it.

We also had daily and weekly press, and some limited websites, then the media scene exploded, and still is, until it plunged us all into a whirlpool of chaos and confusion, and turned us into victims and criminals at the same time, and it became our duty, as a state and society, to liberate From this control, to ensure the preservation of clean and free media, climates disciplined by state values, and social peace that protects our generations from waves of wandering, hatred, and pollution in all its forms.

Our media experience in its details over the past years was not par excellence successful, neither with the presence of the ministry nor its absence, neither with or without the Supreme Council. The real success of the experiment is not related to creating structures only, not even to the quality of the governing legislation (we have more than 12 laws governing the media), but rather It needs a political will that liberates the media from commandments and interference, grants it the necessary independence and freedom, and invests in it, as it is a force for the state and an arm of its arms, and not just a mouthpiece for marketing and promotion, or a front for passing messages and decisions.

It remains that the experience of the new Ministry of Communication comes in contexts in which our country is subjected to an organized media attack, from inside and outside, and in which our media faces difficult tests related to its existence, presence and influence, and in which waves of misinformation, skepticism and escaping from most of the ethical, professional and social controls rise, which obliges it to It rearranges the political and media scene together, and then “furnishes” the media house with the necessary values, knowledge and confidence, to consolidate the concepts of true national media, and highlight our country’s positions, image and achievements. This is what we hope and expect from the Ministry of Communication.

(the Constitution)