NNA - Minister of Information, Paul Morcos, told the National News Agency, on the sidelines of receiving well-wishers this afternoon, that his first steps after assuming his duties at the ministry would be to listen to the experiences of his predecessors, successive ministers and media professionals, “to learn from their failures, benefit from their accomplishments, build on them, start from them, and strive to enrich and amend them, instead of beginning from scratch.”

He explained that he would start at four levels, namely i) to reorganize the Information Ministry and think about its future role and structure; ii) re-launch "Tele Liban" in a modern form and content, and seek international support from major media institutions or UN funding centers so that both the "Lebanon TV" and "Radio Lebanon" Channels can advance in the best possible way; iii) review the draft law on audiovisual media from the point it reached in the subcommittee at the Parliament Council; iv) organize media freedoms to ensure a professional and correct domain for those in the journalism and media practice. Morcos indicated that work would also tackle other levels in a parallel manner.

In response to a question about his promises in terms of the ministry's human resources, the Information Minister said: "This falls under the first level, and I will not delve into it now, as it relates to the role of the ministry and its administrative and human cadres and all of this needs to be studied before responding..."

He added, "I have many previous impressions about the Ministry of Information that I wish to examine. I am no stranger to the media or the ministry. For example, I reviewed the draft law submitted by His Excellency Minister Ziad Makary, and upon his request at the time, I made some observations on the text, in addition to my work as an advisor in parliamentary committees, where I reviewed many texts. Additionally, I reviewed some texts related to regulating social media, and today it is appropriate to reassess whether there is any addition, enrichment, or amendment that can be made to the texts for the sake of development."

Morcos concluded by thanking his predecessor, Minister Makary, "for all his exerted efforts throughout the previous stage."

==============R.Sh.