Information Minister Mohsen Bilal stressed on Sunday the importance of empowering the Arabic language to convey its message of supporting the just Arab cause, warning of the weakness of the linguistic performance and its danger on the power and vitality of the language in facing the surrounding challenges.
Bilal was speaking at a two-day workshop on the problems of the Arabic language in websites held by the Media Preparation Institute of the Information Ministry in cooperation with the Technical Secretariat of the Arab Information Ministers' Council (AIMC) at the Arab League (AL).
The Minister singled out three major challenges facing the Arabic language represented in the isolation of the standard Arabic due to the spread of slang, the weakness of the translation of Arabic sciences and literature and the decline in the digital Arabic content on the internet which is no more that 1 percent.
"This workshop is like ringing the alarm bell to confront those challenges given that the language is the identity of human beings not just an instrument of expression and communication," Minister Bilal added.
He called on the concerned institutions including the AL, the governments and universities, as well as the advertisement sector to exert more efforts to develop the Arabic language and protect it from all types of distortion.
Director of the Technical Secretariat of the AIMC Yaser Abdel-Munem underscored the importance of the workshop and its subject which is an axis and an aim for electronic media in light of the weakness of Arabic language in websites.
Abdel-Munem said the workshop comes in implementation of the recommendations of the Arab Electronic Media Committee in its 4th session, which assigned a work team of Syria, Lebanon, Qatar and Egypt with organizing workshops on empowering Arabic language.He pointed out that the main goals of the Committee are increasing awareness about electronic media and strengthening the presence of Arabic on the net in quality and quantity
