A cultural diplomacy is the need of the hour to correct the West's misconceptions about the Arab world, said panelists at a session on the second day of the Arab Media Forum in Dubai on Tuesday.
During the session titled 'The Arab Image in the West' moderated by Saudi journalist Faisal Abbas, Nathan Tek, US State Department spokesman for the Middle East and the Gulf; Mark Donfried, executive director and founder of the Berlin Institute for Cultural Diplomacy; and Hadley Gamble, reporter of CNBC in the Middle East; stressed the need for innovative efforts to change the negative image of the Arab world in western media.