By IINA,
Jeddah : Saudi Arabia’s new Minister of Information and Culture Dr. Abdul Aziz Al Khoja unveiled plans to give the local media a strong push so as to take Saudi Arabia’s message of peace, tolerance and moderation worldwide. Expressing thanks to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, and Crown Prince Sultan for their confidence in him, Al Khoja said that he would realize the aspirations of the leadership to extend the reach and impact of the Saudi media worldwide. “We will work hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder to give all aspects of media work a strong push so as to achieve the ambitions of our leadership,” Al-Khoja told Saudi Gazette in an interview minutes after his appointment was announced. “The most important thing is that the Kingdom’s voice should reach the entire world, convey the message of peace and stability and portray the Kingdom’s stance of moderation, tolerance and flexibility,” the minister said.
Al Khoja said he is ready to cooperate with Saudi journalists and intellectuals to develop the local media. “I welcome their opinions and suggestions because they constitute the pillar of the Saudi media and represent the shining face of the country within and outside the Kingdom.” The minister said he would work towards defining a strategic vision for the development of media work in the Kingdom. Al Khoja, like the other new ministers, will take up his new assignment after being sworn in before the king.
Abdul Aziz Al Khoja boasts of having vast experience in both the media and diplomatic fields. He could rightly be called an academic and media figure, who later chose to become a career diplomat. Al Khoja started his official career as an academic by serving as Dean of the Faculty of Education in Makkah in 1979 before being appointed as Undersecretary for Information Affairs at the Ministry of Culture and Information in 1984.
In his earlier stint at the Ministry of Information, he served as the chairman of the Executive Councils of the International Islamic News Agency (IINA) and the Islamic States’ Broadcasting Organization (ISBO), the specialized media organs of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the largest Islamic grouping in the world representing 1.5 billion Muslims. He offered outstanding contributions to improve IINA during that period.
Abdul Aziz Al Khoja was appointed as the Kingdom’s Ambassador to Turkey in 1991, and later served as ambassador in Russia, Morocco and Lebanon, where he has served for the past five years. He has played a key role in the successful efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Lebanese political crisis. Born in Makkah in 1940, Al Khoja acquired a Bachelor of Science degree from King Saud University and completed a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry in Great Britain in 1967. He completed his PhD in Organic Chemistry at Birmingham University in 1969.