The Custodians of the Truth
Last week I wrote about the oncoming visit of the “Gatekeeper Editors,” who were on a fact-finding mission to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Group’s mission during this trip was to fill the information gap left behind by US mainstream media in its poor reporting of international news, especially on Saudi Arabia.
Last Sunday, and in my capacity as Board Member of the JCCI and as the Chairwoman of the International Committee (IC) at the JCCI, I hosted this select group of 14 Senior US Editors and Producers who in total represented major news organizations such as the World Policy Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, the National Public Radio and the Herald Tribune — to name but a few. The roundtable discussion was enriching to both the American and the Saudi panel members.
As I lead the session I asked of our guests that they seize this opportunity to ask of our Saudi panel any questions they considered vital in filling the knowledge gaps that may have resulted from their week-long fact finding tour in the Kingdom. Surprisingly enough, the burning issues that surfaced were no different than the issues that we Saudis ask repeatedly of our authorities on a daily basis!
Education, unemployment, the impact of Nitaqat and Hafiz programs, the youth bulge, foreign labor abuse, FDI and the protection of intellectual property, tourism, entrepreneurship support and incubation, lack of public transportation and its impact on productivity, public sector performance and the mismanagement of public funds, and finally the issue of women and our impact on economic development in Saudi Arabia. Realistically speaking, all the questions were relevant, legitimate and timely. But the fact remained that providing reliable and comprehensive answers was virtually impossible to do within the span of a week long visit to the Kingdom — let alone the brief hour and a half meeting allocated to us at the JCCI.
Our Saudi panelists did the best they could to address the issues from within a private sector and civil society perspective. However, try as we did the ultimate responsibility of validating our responses through factual analysis lay at the fingertips of our guests. Shaping public opinion is an ethical duty built on reliable information rather than on personal opinions. If our guests, the Gatekeeper Editors keep this in mind then their mission will certainly be accomplished. Having said that, it is also our ethical obligation to provide all researchers with accurate information to help them form solid and backed up observations — especially if we want to guarantee that these observations are not built on hearsay, personal opinions and innuendo.
Thus in the age of intercultural exchange missions making freely available accurate and updated information is the responsibility of the country in charge… in our case, the country better known as the “Custodians of the Truth.”
President TLC Consultancy
[email protected]
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view
