Further impetus to privatization of media on the anvil in media V year plan

The Five Year Plan presented by the President of the Ministerial Committee For Social Services, Transport and Communication Services, aims at opening the media and communication sector for private sector participation through investment. The plan is to encourage investment in this sector so as to diversify the sources of national income, said the Spokesperson for the Government and the Minister of State for Information Affairs Authority, Sameera Rajab. Addressing journalists at the Qudaibiya Palace after the weekly cabinet session, she said, the 2013 to 2018 strategy also aims at revolutionizing and developing the media sector through a comprehensive rehabilitation of the media – the details of which were still under study and would be spelt out soon – she told the Bahrain News Agency. The plan, she said, was to ensure that the media was made more vibrant and given more freedom to bring about fair reporting on the nation. With this, the reform project carried out by His Majesty the King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the various projects taken up by the government would receive better coverage, she said. She told the BNA that the various aspects of the strategic plan – including the plans for privatizing the media – would be discussed threadbare and the report of the study would be brought before the journalists.