Newspapers will never die; they will fuel modern media in the forthcoming decades,” said Sami Al Reyami, Editor-in-Chief of Emarat Al Youm newspaper, during a panel discussion on “Emirati Media Trends” that was held on Tuesday at the 17th edition of the Arab Media Forum (AMF).

The panel, which was moderated by Naoufer Ramoul, a TV anchor at Dubai Media Incorporated, saw the participation of four main editors-in-chief of Arabic newspapers in the UAE, namely: Raed Barqawi, Executive Editor-in-Chief of Al Khaleej newspaper, Mohammed Al Hammadi, Editor-in-Chief of Al Ittihad, and Mona Bu Samra, Managing Editor-in-Chief of Al Bayan, and Al Reyami.

Al Reyami added, “We have to stop calling television, radios, and newspapers ‘traditional media’. We need to correct that label as well as that of ‘social or digital media’... Let us call it the ‘modern media’. ‘Modern media’ is what merges social networking sites and mediums of traditional media since we are using both to deliver news to the community.”

Commenting on the status of Emirati media, Bu Samra mentioned that “Emirati journalism is known for its reality, professionalism and respect for the reader since it discusses various issues in different fields both locally and regionally.”

Discussing the challenges facing Emirati media, Al Hammadi said, “To be honest, Arab media has been surviving on one leg since 2011, because of the continuous ups and downs in the political scene and the discussed issues.

“Emirati media will mark 50 years since the establishment of Al Ittihad newspaper, the first Emirati newspaper. Thus, media has been considered as the first authority of the community, not the fourth as has previously been the case!” he added.

Furthermore, Al Hammadi talked about the relationship between the leadership and media, especially following the latest action of the leadership against radio host Yaqoub Al Awadi, who refused to give a senior citizen an opportunity to comment about the cost of living during a live broadcast programme on Ajman FM radio station. The Emirati leadership listens to the views of the people, some of which are broadcast by the media.

Barqawi praised the Emirati media. He stated, “It is good that the media criticises issues based on constructive and healthy criticism grounds, since we notice that the government lowered prices after an article was published on the high cost of living.”

Al Hammadi also noted, “I believe that the biggest and recent challenge that we face in media is Artificial Intelligence which is going to kill 30 per cent of the jobs; these jobs won’t be existing because of the robots.”

On the other hand, Barqawi mentioned that “we can overcome all the challenges as the Emirati media commands professional cadres. We can as well utilise Google’s techniques to thrive.”