We have been thinking as a work team since we started producing the 99 program in 2007 on the sports channel about how to create a second class of competencies, each in his specialization, but due to the weak outputs of universities, the absence of professional training, and the absence of a specialized institution in this field, we did not achieve a satisfactory result. Therefore; The decision of the Board of Directors of the Radio and Television Corporation to approve the establishment of a specialized media academy to train the employees of the commission or the media sector in general, has been widely welcomed by the media makers in the Kingdom, because such a qualitative decision that aims to develop the essence of this industry, which is the human being, will achieve a major shift in raising the efficiency of the head. Human money, the emergence and discovery of Saudi talents of both sexes were buried.
I remember that His Excellency Dr. Fuad bin Abd al-Salam al-Farsi, the former Minister of Information, was hosted by the Shura Council in 2003. The members of the Council asked him about the reason for the poor performance of Saudi television, and he replied: “I have employees, not media professionals.” His Excellency meant that employees of Saudi TV are employees on the scale of government jobs, and their jobs are not free and governed by competition, creativity and individual productivity.
The foregoing was not the only reason for the poor performance of television, but rather the limited financial resources for television production for two reasons, the first: spending a large part of the one billion and 800 million riyals, which is the authority’s budget, on the salaries of nearly 5,000 employees, and on annual contracts for maintenance projects, news exchange, and others. The second: the connection of the production decision to the availability of cash in the production item, with the need to approve contracts from the Ministry of Finance as a main requirement for the issuance of baptism, and this routine contradicts the media industry that the new Saudi Arabia aspires to in its ambitious vision 2030, and for this we were very pleased with another qualitative decision issued by the Board of Directors The Commission is to establish an investment company that invests in the assets of the Radio and Television Commission in various regions of the Kingdom, the value of which, according to my information, is close to more than one billion riyals. for years.
If we look briefly at the desired goals of these two decisions, we will find that the first aims to produce trained human capital, and the second decision aims to provide cash capital outside the budget, and both of them are to overcome difficulties to reach high-quality television production, and therefore a third decision was issued to establish a media production company owned by the authority that invests all points The strength that distinguishes Saudi TV today, which any production company in the private sector would wish for, in terms of integrated equipment, transport vehicles, more than 40 studios, a free budget, competencies, administrative expertise and headquarters spread throughout the Kingdom, so that the TV will launch into competition, and recover its creative sons who emigrated Because of their low incomes, and it can keep up with the market in attracting local and international competencies, which will raise the level of production, and as a result the viewership will increase, and another income will be achieved through advertising sponsorships.
And if the plan prepared for these three decisions succeeds, the Minister of Culture and Information, Dr. Awwad Al-Awad, who was known for his silent preoccupation with qualitative work, will be the first information minister to depart from the concept of “media management” to “media industry”, a real industry that makes the level of the Kingdom’s media parallel to its high status, and we are all confident in the success of His Excellency and the success of his qualified team led by the young M. Abdel-Ilah Bassiouni, Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Radio and Television Corporation. It is as if I see in the eyes of my frustrated colleagues looks of hope and optimism about these historic decisions and confidence in the speed of implementation to unload their creativity within their home television, to spare them the need to work outside television on a part-time or piece-time basis at the mercy of producers. This is not an easy task, but it is not impossible as long as the interests and priorities of the leader of change belong Al-Hazm, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and as long as the godfather of the new Saudi Arabia, His Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is behind this successful diagnosis of our Saudi media, both internal and external, which is also expected to be targeted with a package of qualitative decisions to block the path of malicious and intended smear campaigns that We are exposed to it from time to time, so that we can communicate our true image to the world as it is, peaceful Muslims who love coexistence and reject hatred.
* Saudi journalist
www.algaydan.com
Salah Al-Ghidan
