Information Affairs Authority President Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa issued an edict establishing a committee in charge of the media centre. IAA international relations advisor Shaikh Abdulaziz bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa will chair the panel, which features officials representing concerned ministries and government departments. Work on the IAA Media Centre up-gradation project will start next week.
The panel is tasked to receive official statements from different ministries and supply local and foreign news and media agencies with official data and information in Bahrain. It will also be entitled to address media queries about the reality of events in Bahrain, as well as government-led projects. The media centre is part of IAA-led strategic initiatives to project Bahrain’s image abroad.
The Cabinet approved in its session held on March 13, the IAA plan to upgrade the media centre and supply it with qualified staff and cutting-edge equipment so as to serve as a key source of information for local and international media agencies. The session had then also directed ministries and government departments to name their representatives to serve as liaison officials with the IAA.
The IAA media centre played a crucial role during the unrest which gripped the Kingdom of Bahrain recently since it was first launched last February. It has since then hosted a series of conferences and meetings bringing together senior officials and journalists as part of a strategy to update the public opinion on developments and project the truth, thus debunking fallacies and defamatory campaigns targeting Bahrain in a bid to sully its image.