CAIRO: Saudi Minister of Media Turki bin Abdullah Al-Shabanah on Tuesday urged Arab media outlets to raise the level of awareness among the masses on global current affairs. He was addressing the opening session of the 11th session of the Executive Bureau of the Council of Arab Information Ministers at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo. Al-Shabanah stressed the importance of the role of the media in covering what is happening in the Palestinian territories, and in giving Palestinians the necessary platform to highlight their plight on the world stage. Badr Al-Din Alali, the Arab League’s secretary-general for media and communication, added to the points made by Al-Shabanah on the importance of the role of the media in tackling the phenomenon of terrorism, and urged the media to play a more positive and effective role in supporting Arab issues. The session reflected the concerns of Arab League and its long-term aims — the Arab Media Map for Sustainable Development 2030 — to streamline the role of the media as the most effective means of reaching the masses and policymakers. Alali said that one of the most important outcomes expected from the session was the adoption of the updated version of the Arab Media Charter of Honor, along with a discussion of wider Arab media strategy Abdullah Jadallah Nimer, undersecretary of the Sudanese Ministry of Information, called on Arab media channels and outlets to maintain objectivity and professionalism in dealing with developments in the African country. In a press statement, Nimer called on journalists to extract information from reliable sources and not rely on Western and foreign media outlets. “There are a lot of media (reports) based on unrecorded videos and unreliable sources,” he said, urging the press to be careful in dealing with news and events in Sudan. In response to a question on Egypt’s role in supporting Khartoum, Nimer responded that the two countries maintained friendly ties, and that there was an informal link between his government and Cairo to help solve the political situation.