IRAN CALLS FOR GREATER INTERACTION TO BALANCE GLOBAL MEDIA

From Ahmad Zukiman Zain

TEHRAN, Nov 16 (Bernama) -- Iranian Minister of Culture Seyyed Mohammad
Hosseini opened a meeting of leading Asia-Pacific news agencies here Sunday with
a call for greater interaction to balance the media world.

"The mass media should be impartial, honest, and oriented toward a fair
process, and should not just record events," he told the Organisation of
Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) executive board meeting at the Tehran Enqelab
Hotel.

He said the 41-member OANA efforts to promote regional convergence and
South-South cooperation and to make use of new technology could balance the
one-sided flow of news and information and turn it into a two-sided current.

More than 40 representatives of 18 member agencies including Malaysia,
Russia, Japan, China, South Korea, Indonesia and India attended the meeting
under the theme "A quest for global media balancing".

Bernama is represented by General Manager Hasnul Hassan. The Malaysian
national news agency is one of the four vice-chairmen of OANA, which is
currently headed by ANTARA of Indonesia.


Formed in 1961 on the initiative of UNESCO, the organisation aimed to secure
direct and free exchange of news between the news agencies of a region inhabited
by more than one-half of the world's population.

Saying the growing advancement of modern technologies had transformed the
shape and structure of the mass media, Hosseini added that it had given rise to
major developments.

However, he said "the hegemonic powers" had retained their monopoly over the
international order of communication and assumed an influential role in the
competitive international arena.

"The efforts to make the flow of news two-sided, which is essential for the
free flow of information, have been disrupted due to the Westerners’ access to
advanced technology and their endeavors to create one-sided trends that are only
meant to further their own interests and divide other nations and harm their
interests," he said.

Noting that the theme of the meeting was a good opportunity to discuss the
global communication hierarchy, he said nowhere could be found in the world a
nation which was deprived of access to information technology.


"Naturally, people will not remain uninformed about the various local and
international events in different parts of the world.

"The truth about distorted news is quickly revealed, and the various media
outlets do not allow the facts to be concealed," he said.

He suggested that the OANA member agencies stationed their representatives
in each other's country to have direct access to information.

"In this regard, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance is ready to
provide the necessary facilities to those member countries that have not yet
established offices in Iran or have not dispatched foreign correspondents to
Iran," he said.

The meeting was hosted Mehr News Agency which joined OANA two years ago.

-- BERNAMA