MALAYSIA PROPOSES OIC FILM FESTIVAL

From Yong Soo Heong


RABAT (Morocco), Jan 28 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has proposed that the
Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) countries hold a film festival like
that in Cannes or Berlin to promote the works of their producers and directors
and provide a marketplace for people in their creative industries.

Malaysian Information Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek, speaking at the
opening of 8th Islamic Conference of Information Ministers (ICIM) here, said
such a festival should be held back-to-back with the next ICIM meeting in 2011.

"The meeting may be known as the 'OIC Film Festival' or by any other name.
But, the important thing is to allow our creative industry players to think
beyond their shores and have a better grasp of the untold commercial benefits
once they work together," he said.

Ahmad Shabery said television channels and cinemas in OIC countries should
promote movies, documentaries, entertainment shows and animations produced by
their own creative industries.

As ministers responsible for information, he said, they must work to ensure
that "we should have more visuals, more images, more sound-bites so that we can
really feel the bonds of our brotherhood among us".

Ahmad Shabery also called on OIC member states to take a more aggressive
stance towards news and information from the international media, which may be
sometimes distorted.

"As such, our media organisations must be prepared to print and broadcast
more news, images and visuals provided by our own media players. This sharing of
information will certainly enable us to mobilise world opinion on various
matters affecting the Ummah," he said.

In this regard, he proposed that OIC member states work on the establishment
of an OIC TV news channel.

"Maybe we can begin with a selected few member states to jump-start the
project. I propose that this item be discussed in the agenda of the next OIC
Summit."

Ahmad Shabery said this year's ICIM meeting came at a crucial time after the
Israeli aggression in Gaza.

He told the meeting that the Malaysian parliament at its recent special
session had called on the United Nations to immediately form an international
war crimes tribunal to investigate Israeli atrocities and violence on the
Palestinian people.

"I believe that we must mobilise efforts in the OIC to galvanise support to
bring the Israeli perpetrators to the World Court, to be tried for atrocities
against humanity. We cannot allow these criminals to go scot-free and we must
mobilise worldwide opinion against such crimes," he said.

To help mobilise world opinion, Ahmad Shabery said, the Palestinians should
be equipped with know-how and the resources to become "citizen journalists".

"We want them to relay real-time information and pictures via the New Media
directly to all of us. We in the Islamic world should be able to tell about
ourselves better rather than being overly dependent on other people's media," he
said.

At the meeting, Ahmad Shabery also welcomed efforts to restructure the
International Islamic News Agency (IINA) and the International Islamic
Broadcasting Union (IBU) to make them more dynamic and effective entities in the
OIC.

-- BERNAMA