Dubai: Online newspapers, blogs and forums will now need to register with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information to operate.

The new guidelines and rules will be added to the current publishing and printing law.

Abdul Aziz Khaja, Minister of Information and Culture, assured that the list is a tool of regulation - rather than restricting freedom of speech, it is inline with the development moves that the media sector is witnessing in Saudi Arabia. He added that the rule is open to amendments and improvements.

On the same issue, alarabiya.net interviewed the official speaker of the ministry, Abdul Rahman Hazza, who said that this law is just a connecting bridge between the ministry and the users of electronic publishing.

Hazza emphasized that KSA is the second country with maximum number of online blogs in the region.

The ministry offers them opportunities to register (not permits) their blogs and the law does not punish them if they do not. He added that registered or not, the law will still convict them if inappropriate material is published.

The Ministry of Culture and Information has made the new law available for download on their website. Part of it details the forms of electronic publishing that the law applies to, which include electronic journalism, forums, blogs, broadcasts via mobile, mail lists, chat rooms.

Also included in the document is a detailed list of goals that stand behind the law, some of them to support and regulate the electronic media, and others to protect the society and the people working in electronic publishing.

The fifth article lists types of online publishing that need permission - one of them is electronic journalism which needs to have an editor-in-chief approved by the ministry. The same applies for media organisations.

The last article in the document lists the form of online publishing that need to be registered such as forums, blogs, personal websites and chat rooms. Applicants need to be Saudis or legal residents, not less than 20 years of age, and have minimum high school certificate at least.

The regulations also specify punishments in case of violations.

Turki Al Rougi, editor-in-chief of Al-Wiam online, in an interview with Arabnews.com, said that the fines can be as high as 100,000 Saudi riyal, which websites owners simply cannot afford as they are mostly individuals, unlike print publications which are owned by big establishments and publishing houses.