Media mogul encourages press transparency in Gulf States

The owner of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, has called on the Gulf States to open up their markets to Western media organisations, in a recent speech.

Murdoch commented at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, that economies operating a high degree of trade protectionism were ”destructive” and inhibited local creative industries.

It is no surprise that Murdoch’s comments come in the wake of News Corporation - whose publications include the Wall Street Journal – trying to bolster its position in the region. Indeed, the Corporation has chosen to make Abu Dhabi the regional hub of its online advertising network arm. News Corporation will certainly be hoping to capitalise on the Gulf’s young, affluent population, to increase its global presence.

In his keynote speech, marketing news publication Brand Republic reports that Murdoch used Japan as an example of how not to behave trade-wise, saying: ”Japan is a good example of a modern nation with a protected – and limited – creative sector. As a result, Japanese citizens pay higher prices for more limited fare.”

Murdoch continued, moving onto his media transparency argument, ”The Japanese economy has fewer jobs for its workers and Japanese culture is denied the global voice that a nation which boasts the world’s second largest economy ought to have.”

After the Japanese case study, Murdoch moved to urge the Gulf States to promote more press freedom and less censorship, even suggesting incentives should be provided to Western media to boost regional economies, saying, ”With the right economic incentives, you will find creative Arab enterprises rising higher and faster than most modern buildings.”

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