Speaking at the Saudi Media Forum, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson talked about his often fractious relationship with the media:

“I didn’t always have a good relationship with the media, but the point about politicians is that they shouldn’t have a good relationship with the media.

“The media is not here to tell you what a great guy you are, they’re there to hold a mirror to what you are doing. There are some media which are too hostile but responsible media are doing their job.”

Politicians have to engage and tell their stories, according to Johnson, but engaging on social media can can be a double edged sword. “Social media can distort people’s understanding of the world. Social media tells people what they want to hear. Responsible media can do better than what happens on social media…”

Boris Johnson has just released a memoir. The book is titled Unleashed.

Saudi Arabia’s media is changing as part of a nationwide movement towards modernisation.

New opportunities in media are helping us open up to the world,” said Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud at the opening of this week’s Saudi Media Forum in Riyadh. “There is a momentum for investment in media as well as sports, tourism and many other sectors. We are changing the perspective of how the entire world views us.

Podnews editor James Cridland also delivered a session at the Saudi Media Forum.

Sharing the latest top 10 podcasts in the US, Cridland highlighted the similarities of all ten. All have been going at least three years – most for more than eight years. All are either interviews, true crime, or short-form stories like This American Life. And all are available everywhere, and are not exclusive to one platform. He shared download figures for a number of countries, including Australia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where Apple Podcasts has a 45% share of all downloads, and Spotify only gets 20%. More detail about James’ session here.