Bahrain chairs GCC news agencies meeting

Riyadh, Apr. 2 (BNA): Mohannad Sulaiman Al Nuaimi, Acting Director-General of Bahrain News Agency (BNA) has chaired the meeting of general directors and officials of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) news agencies held in the GCC General Secretariat premises. In his opening speech at the meeting today, Al Nuaimi cited the "exceptional situations experienced by the Arab region and the events witnessed in ambient countries require from us the officials in charge of GCC news agencies to exert more efforts and cooperation to achieve the aspirations of our wise leadership, in order to serve and achieve the interests of our peoples and societies in addition to working and coordinating to cope with such situations responsibly and in accordance with the basics, standards and fundamentals of the media profession". He stressed that "thanks to the good preparation by the GCC general secretariat, this meeting features numerous topics which will lay new building blocks in order to boost the frames of media and news cooperation among GCC news agencies to keep abreast of current and latest regional and global developments. He pointed out that " all of us were able through our synergies, cohesion and solidarity to succeed in consolidating the position of GCC news agencies at the various functions and overcome the challenges through our upholding objective and credible discussion and responsible conveyance of facts with keenness on neutrality and excellence in presenting the best media and news content. He added that "all of us in the GCC news agencies have always been on being a single voice, united hands in facing anyone who attempts to undermine our GCC states. He said the voice of GCC news agencies has reached to the entire world and covered news instantaneously and have efficient media professionals all over the GCC countries in whose performance and coverage of local, regional and international events we are always proud. Al Nuaimi expressed his "appreciation of the fruitful efforts being exerted by all staffs of the GCC news agencies in constantly following up the implementation of cooperation on various activities, training and expertise exchange" aspiring that the meeting 'will conclude to the sought results in the service for the sake of the joint GCC media progress." He congratulated his colleague Mohammed Jalal Al Raisy on the trust of appointing him as Executive Director of the United Arab Emirates News Agency (WAM). He praised the colleagues in Qatar News Agency (QNA) for their spectacular efforts in launching the joint GCC Media Application. He also congratulated Abdullah bin Fahad Al Hussain of the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on once again winning the trust of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques of reappointing him as president of the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), expressing gratitude for his efficient and successful management of this meeting. Al Nuaimi expressed sincere gratitude and appreciation on behalf of the participating delegations to Shaikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah the Board Chairman of Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), for his remarkable efforts and implementation of initiatives that boost the Arab cohesion, and further the areas of cooperation with the various international news agencies. Al Nuaimi thanked Khalid Al Ghassani the Secretary-General for Cultural and Media Affairs at the GCC General Secretariat on the occasion of his retirement, praising his great efforts exerted during his term which contributed to elevating the GCC news agencies cooperation and development of their tools and machinery and reaching out to all segments and levels of the public in the region.