Muslim information ministers call for joint mass media project

By freedomforum.org staff

11.06.01

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As information ministers from Muslim countries gather in Tehran, Iran, proposals are afoot to launch joint mass media efforts to counter what is claimed to be a Western news monopoly.

The two-day meeting of representatives of the Organization of the Islamic Conference is hosted by Iran and chaired by the Iranian minister of culture and the Islamic guidance, Ahmad Masjed Jamei.

Stories carried yesterday and today by the official Islamic Republic News Agency and the official broadcast station IRIB quote officials calling for joint media efforts of the participants.

Jamei said yesterday that news media in Muslim countries should work to correct a false image of Islam and Muslim states said to be conveyed by the Western press as part of a supposed foreign-policy effort against Muslims.

"Today, an image is being displayed from Afghanistan as if the country is devoid of civilization and culture and it is only the land of opium and terrorism, whereas Afghanistan has rich culture and civilization," Jamei said.

He said Western media had exerted such a monopoly over worldwide news that the voices of oppressed people could not find a way to influence public opinion.

Jamei called for cooperation among the news media of Islamic states, adding that the media could serve as the eyes and ears of the world's people and influence international decision making.

The Iranian minister reportedly said that Iran firmly opposed terrorism in any form, including the Sept.11 terrorist attacks in the United States, but was also against air strikes in Afghanistan and Palestinian territories.

Iran's first vice president, Mohammad-Reza Aref, yesterday called for cooperation among Muslim states to set up what IRNA called a powerful information dissemination network to provide correct and prompt information to Islamic countries and elsewhere.

Aref made the comments in a meeting with the visiting Syrian information minister, Adnan Umran. Umran also said the Islamic world should have its own mass media, including a globally available satellite channel that would be free of what he called the distortions of Western media.

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