OANA assembly proper opportunity to foil 'Orientophobia'

Tehran, IRNA – The 18th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) seems to be an appropriate platform to stand against a project followed by Western mainstream media to propagate "Orientophobia," including Iranophobia, Russophobia and Sinophobia. The general assembly, which kicked off in Tehran on Monday, is hosted this time by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) in the presence of delegations from 43 agencies from 35 member states of the organization. The two-day meeting is expected to provide the members with an opportunity to acquire a better understanding of the West's media propaganda campaign as well as find collective strategies to stand against the media misinformation and nullify them. Since the impact of media platforms on the formation of public opinion is not a covert issue and the media networks can be used by powerful governments and mainstream media moguls to manipulate the way of thinking among nations, identification of their attitudes can help become aware of their plots against certain independent countries such as Russia, China, and Iran. The Western media have been busy disseminating misinformation and disinformation on Iran since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in the country in 1979. For instance, Western media outlets tried to belittle a shooting incident in Texas, the US, and at the same time, they exaggerated the collapse of a building in the city of Abadan in southern Iran with the aim of portraying a bad image of the Islamic country. The Westerners accuse Iran of sending weapons and drones to Russia, while they have publicly announced that they provided Ukraine with billions of dollars of arms and ammunition. The West also uses its media apparatus to propagate anti-China and anti-Russia stories. As the Western media embark on hue and cry on China's policy regarding Taiwan, the American authorities try to push Beijing towards war in order to weaken the new Asian power. The Western media also attempt to portray a perilous face of China and Russia against the security of the world, while the networks ignore numerous crimes committed by the United States throughout the globe, including war, poverty, and displacement of millions of people in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen. Therefore, the OANA seems to be a good platform to establish joint mechanisms in order to reveal the psychological and media tactics of the West. In the two-day general assembly of the OANA, around 60 senior directors, managers, and editors from 35 member states will discuss various topics, including the development and strengthening of media cooperation. The general assembly is being held at the highest level of every news agency to discuss infrastructural issues; the upgrade of activities of members; macro-politics; review, reform, and ratification of agreements of the executive board and the technical and news groups; offering suggestions to the executive board and pursuing executive issues; as well as decision-making on new members. The OANA was established on December 22, 1961, in a bid to facilitate information dissemination among regional countries with the support of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) along with Fars and Mehr news agencies are the three media agencies in Iran representing the Islamic country in the OANA. IRNA is one of the first members of the organization, and presided over it between 1997 to 2000; then, the Iranian news agency acted as the vice chairman of the regional organization in 2016, and now IRNA is a member of the executive committee of OANA. Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish