KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 (Bernama) -- Many news agencies of countries in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) have failed to function effectively in disseminating news and information, let alone compete with international news agencies, a journalism professor said Thursday.
Prof. Dr Mohd Safar Hasim, who chairs Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Centre of Media and Communication Studies, cited the economic factor as the main reason for this shortcoming.
"We have seen how the cooperative news organisations work. Basically, they disseminate news free, as non-profit entity. As such they could not build up their strength," he told Bernama ahead of the Sixth Conference of the Ministers of Information of the Non-Aligned Countries (COMINAC VI) here on Nov 19-22.
The conference will be attended by ministers and senior officials of more than 70 countries of NAM.
COMINAC VI is seeking to advance information and communication collaboration towards a more dynamic NAM, the theme of the conference.
One of the platforms to achieve the objective will be the formation of a NAM news network, a Malaysian proposal to be tabled at the conference.
LACK SUPPORT
Over the years, many news cooperation and exchanges have been established among the 114-member countries of NAM but they suffer the lack of support and commitment from their own media players.
Dr Safar said the financial constraint also left these news agencies to have very little muscle to compete with the international news agencies or the satellite news networks.
"Since the cooperative model might not work successfully in our effort to disseminate information, perhaps, a different model, a business-oriented model, with profit motive in mind should be set up instead," he suggested.
Whether this could be done by a single country or by several countries should be explored further, he said, adding that Malaysia could take the lead as it is currently Chair of NAM and the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).
He cautioned that setting up a news organisation, be it a news agency or a satellite news network, required a lot of capital.
"But if the organisation is acceptable by the end-users it will have a future. It would be better if initially at least, the financier can sustain losses," he said.
ALTERNATIVE NEWS CHANNEL
He said Al-Jazeera had shown the way, as an alternative news channel as reflected during the recent US-led war on Iraq.
However, he said the most important consideration was for the private news agency or satellite news network to provide diversity in programmes and competitiveness to attract viewers worldwide.
These news agencies or channels should be able to report fairly, accurately and responsibly, he said.
"We should utilise the current development of ICT, the Internet and the satellite transmission while at the same time strengthen the terrestrial television. We should disseminate correct information in the Internet. This is easier said than done. But we must try," Dr Safar said.
He said to do this the communication infrastructure in NAM countries must be improved and this entailed more investment.
The ICT, especially the Internet, has provided the world with a new opportunity, said Dr Safar, hence NAM countries must not lose out again.
"We should use this new opportunity to build a better inter-cultural relationship and to close the cross-cultural gap between NAM countries and even between Muslim and non-Muslim countries, especially the west which at this moment has a distorted view of Muslims and Islam," he said.
