Qatar's bilateral investment and economic relations have significantly developed after the Gulf crisis began, the Government Communications Office (GCO) director, HE Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed bin Saif al-Thani, said on Monday.
“Qatar has achieved a great global presence through the participation of ministers and officials in various events in different countries,” he pointed out at a panel discussion held by the Diplomatic Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Qatar is not sensitive about the social media and new media, on the contrary it deals with it and finds it important, because it has nothing to fear or be afraid of,” the official told the event on new media in conflict and political transformation in the Gulf region - Gulf crisis as a model.
HE Sheikh Saif observed that while traditional media is easy to deal with, it is difficult to handle what is published in the new media as it circulates and develops so fast and focuses on the social aspects more than any other area.
“Dealing with new media requires speed, accuracy, focus and credibility. It also requires that a reaction is only given to major issues and to not be dragged into sub-issues,” he said.
During the first five months of the crisis, the GCO held more than 500 television interviews and local and international press interviews with ministers and government officials to present the Qatari point of view and to inform the Qatari public and the world about the latest developments and its repercussions.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson HE Lulwa al-Khater spoke about means of communication and the development of the media and its relation with different levels of society and the public domain.
She believed that social media allows anyone to identify with alternative communities that are separate from their social, religious, spatial and temporal space, thus creating a change in the cultural environment within one society.
“These media outlets have also allowed a person to waste temporal, circumstantial and spatial context to achieve their personal purposes by fabricating images, videos and audio tracks and gluing them to other societies with no truth,” she said while reminding that such actions are currently happening with Qatar in the context of the Gulf crisis.
