Arabia Saudita & World against Terrorism

The first of Agust of 2005 came to the power of Arabia Saudita The King Abdallah bin Abd Al-Aziz. Hehas donde a lot of changes to change the face of this country. The web page www.memri.org, "middle east media research institute. It analize what he changed in this few years. In the terrorism level, those are the changes that Abd Al-Aziz promoted to finnish with it:

• Punishing those involved in terrorism.
• If someone contacts with terrorists pay a fine of 1 million euros.
• In the past year, Saudi authorities broke terrorist cells, including one connected to Al-Qaeda who planned and undermine the Hajj pilgrims. Also they thwarted 180 attempts to carry out attacks inside Saudi Arabia, arrested more than 500 operators of Al-Qaeda, and progressed to eliminate sources of terrorist financing.
• In December 2007, the conference of National Security and Information Technology in Saudi Arabia called for an international ban on the use of Internet and other technological media to spread terrorism.

Aso he did campaign in student institutions against terrorism and extremists.

"In his address to the 63rd session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said that the nations of the world needed to work together to combat extremists who seek to "propagate notions of intolerance, exclusion, racism and hatred."

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA51909

By Jorge

From the beginning of 20th century to Western participation in Saudi Arabian PR progression

In the beginning of 20th century applied Saudi states King Abdulaziz methods to communicate and interact with all parts of his country. There was no choise but to use interpersonal comminucation because lack of massmedia. He used majlis - a forum to conduct the business of the state and to talk people. The purpose was to permit idea exhance and public interaction. Also local shaiks started to use majlis to raise their credibitily and prestige among people. Majlis tradition has continued to present day as open court where the king enhances his credipility.

The year 1932 was a turning point in Saudi Arabian Pr field. That year was formed Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That kingdom faced new problems in communication: Leaders weren't able to keep touch so easily and great amount of people weren't easily kept satisfied. So King Abdulaziz used persuasion to convince religious leaders and other opinion leaders to share his view.

1935 Aramco - Arabian-American oil company - started to seek oil from Saudi Arabia. That company established a Reseach Department to study Saudi people's history, language etc. This was necessary to find a best way to communicate with the Saudi people. Now-a-days Aramco is controlled by Saudis and its PR- department is one of the biggest within Saudi Arabian covernmental agencies.

(Culbertson, H.M. & Chen. N. (1996) International Public Relations: a comparative analysis. lawrence Erlbaum associates Inc. New Jersey. [241-247]

wrote: Kimmo

Ten reasons to spend your Christmas Holidays on the Internet

Now that we have reached this point of blogging, I think it is time to introduce MEPRA to our readers. The Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA) was established in Dubai in the year 2001 as a non-profit organization to drive growth in the Middle East region’s PR industry.

Initially MEPRA was formed to fulfil the following objectives:

* To encourage and promote the public relations profession within the Middle East region
* To raise awareness of public relations as an important social and economic activity
* To raise professional standards and provide a structure for continuing professional development
* To provide practitioners with a forum to discuss PR issues
* To provide a unified voice for the public relations profession around the area of best practice and promote thought leadership on issues relating to public relations

Despite of its young age the organization seems to have a very active role in promoting PR profession in the Middle East. On the 24th November MEPRA is hosting a gala where the best PR campaigns are being awarded. There are 10 different prize categories concerning, for example, Corporate Social Responsibility, Government communications and Corporate Image and Reputation.

The winners of each category will be posted on the MEPRA website after the ceremony so I recommend that you keep an eye on that website during the Christmas Holidays.

To learn more about MEPRA, go to mepra.org

To learn more about Best Practice Awards 2009, go to awards.mepra.org

Written by: Elina

Challenges of international Arab public relations

One of the things that radically affected on the image of the Arab world was the attacs of September 11, 2001. Kirat (2005) explains that after September 11, 2001 the Arab world suffered from accusations, stereotypes and misconceptions which led to a situation where Arabs and Muslims have been portrayed as initiators of terrorist. I guess that most of us are familiar with these accusations and one-sided stories through international and our national media.

Kirat (2005) continues that Arabs, individuals, organizations and states have not managed to defend themselves and they have not been able to convey their true image. He also says that international Arab public relations have not met the challenges and have failed to market the real image of Islam and Arab, while the international media is strengthening the stereotypes and the wrong image of the Arab world (Kirat 2005).

There are lots of discussions about public relations challenges in the Arab world and many people criticize that PR in Arab states lacks of democracy and it is used as a tool of propaganda. This topic made me wonder how our "Western and developed" PR is any different? It is spreading one-sided, prejudice image of the Arab world and forgetting everything else. It loves to present the Western world as civilized, democratic and somehow better. Isn't this propaganda? Maybe it would be time to look at the mirror with an critical eye...It may not be only the Arab PR that lacks of democracy and atmosphere of freedom...

Reference: Kirat, Mohamed (2005). Public relations practice in the Arab World: A critical assessment. Public Relations Review. Vol.31 Issue 3, 323-332

Written by: Satu-Maria

Historical perspective to PR in Arab countries

Public relations has existed in Arab countries since the beginning of their culture. There are evidence, that around year 2000 B.C. circular handwritten on papers told Babylonian farmers, how to increase their crop yields - Same kind of bulletin was used by U.S. department of agriculture nearly 4000 years later.

Propaganda seems to be used also already in ancient time. Assyrians were first to use pictorial bulletin to tell about their victories and raise enthusiasm in their home front. Same kind of strategy were used by Egyptian pharaos. They raise their support and stregthenged their soldiers' morale by using propaganda speeches.

Arabs also copied "pr practises" from ancient creeks. Public forums and depates were highly valued stages, were speakers persuaded their listeners - Now-a-days that kind of PR- technique might be called a special event.

Later in history Arab nations were influenced by western model of pr. That happened in 1930s, when international oil company started to explore arabian desert. But this recent history of Arab PR-past I'll come later.....

(Culbertson, H.M. & Chen. N. (1996) International public relations: a comparative analysis. Lawrence Erlbaum associates Inc. New Jersey. [239-241]


written by: Kimmo

Arabic PR Anti-terrorism

What is the best tool to share information nowadays?
Of course, Google.
What is the first link if you search for "arabic terrorism" in Google?

THE ARAB CONVENTION FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF TERRORISM

http://www.al-bab.com/Arab/docs/league/terrorism98.htm

I think is clear how are they using information and PR with the world.

Written by Jorge

Something old, something new, something borrowed...

After doing some googleing last night I have come to realize that there is one issue that is always controversial no matter where you are located on the globe. And by this I mean the issue of Nuclear Power.

The United Arab Emirates (UEA) is planning to build the Emirate's first nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi by the year 2020 in order to meet the national power requirement. The plant will be built in three phases: the first phase is planned to be ready in 2017, followed by the second and third phases in 2018 and 2019. The UEA government has forecasted that natural gas supplies, which is the primary power source in the UEA, will not be sufficient to meet the future demand and that is why it is necessary for the nation’s development to move to nuclear energy.

The use of nuclear energy is a current issue in Finland, too. In Finland there has been on-going debate over the past few years about whether to build more nuclear power plants in Finland or not. Several environmental organizations such as Greenpeace have been active in the public discussion and critically analyzed the safety aspects of nuclear energy. Scanning and monitoring such public discussions and concerns is a good example of how PR works: the core of the nuclear energy debate is to understand and to listen to each party’s point of view.

In order to oversee nuclear safety and security, the UAE has set up the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation "We totally understand the utmost importance of safety and security in using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," said authority chairman Ahmad Mubarak al-Mazrouie. "We are committed to our role in guaranteeing the benefits of nuclear energy... in such a way that does not impact public safety or the environment," he was quoted as saying. I bet Mister al-Mazrouie has had some advice from a PR specialist before giving those statements. (Statements taken from nuclearpowerdaily.com)

Even though the Arab world may seem as being something mystical in the eyes of an European, the local PR practitioners struggle with the same issues and dilemmas as their European collegues. I guess it is sort of comforting to learn that the two worlds are not that different after all.

Written by: Elina