BNA Director-General participates in 46th FANA Conference

Kuwait, (BNA): Acting Chief Executive of the National Communication Centre (NCC) and Director-General of the Bahrain News Agency (BNA), Ahmed Mohammed Al-Mannai, participated in the 46th Conference Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), currently hosted by the State of Kuwait. The 46th FANA Conference will cover the topics on its agenda, including the activities of its presidency and secretariat-general during the previous session. It will also discuss holding a seminar on the problems faced by news agencies’ female journalists and ways to solve them, as well as a workshop to improve the performance of editors of economic sections, and another on enhancing the media content through social media networks. It will also review the outcomes and recommendations of regional and international conferences held during the previous year, in addition to the invitation addressed to it to attend a media conference in Havana, Cuba, in 2019. It will also discuss a number of economic, cultural, tourism and technical issues, as well as ways to enhance news exchange among news agencies. Al-Mannai expressed delight at taking part in the conference and meeting his Arab news agencies’ counterparts. He stressed that the 46th FANA Conference is held in the midst of the great challenges that are currently facing Arab countries, and require putting forward new formula of joint media action and continuous constructive cooperation in order to counter the deliberate smear campaigns launched by suspicious media outlets in a blatant attempt to disseminate their venomous agenda and undermine the bright reality and advanced experiences of Arab countries. These attempts and campaigns aim to obstruct Arab countries’ development march and efforts to ensure security, stability and prosperity for their peoples, he said. Al-Mannai expressed hope that the conference would come up with recommendations that would live up to the level of the challenges and contribute to enhancing cooperation among Arab news agencies and make it more creative. This would strengthen FANA’s role in consolidating areas of media and press cooperation in accordance with developed media bases that would cope with the rapid flow of events and the ongoing media competition among Arab and international news agencies to cover them and deliver the right and accurate information in accordance with a balanced and sober media discourse. Earlier, Kuwait's Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Mohammad Al-Jabri said, in a speech during the opening ceremony of the conference, the world today is going through a critical phase of accelerated events and challenges that cannot be ignored by media, especially Arab News outlets, the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported. Arab News Agencies play a major role in promoting awareness among people while also shouldering the responsibility of addressing rumors that aim to destabilise relations, as well as confronting such immoral ideals, especially from terrorist extremist groups, he added. The Kuwaiti minister indicated that media outlets could support the national development efforts and influence the citizens in taking part in these efforts through channeling their energies in the right direction to achieve maximum benefit from their ideas, which would eventually lead for a more constructive future. Minister Al-Jabri voiced confidence that the next phase would be a new transition for Arab news agencies in various ways in terms of advancement in tools and methods. In order to reach these goals, there must be collaborative efforts in strengthening relations through continued open dialogue and exchange of experiences among the agencies, he said.