Non Aligned Movement member countries today unanimously agreed to revitalise their news agencies Pool by replacing it with a new mechanism called the NAM News Network, giving each nation the right and freedom to "tell its own story".
Welcoming Malaysia's proposal to replace the Pool with a new mechanism, information ministers and senior officials of over 70 countries said in a declaration at the end of the 6th Conference of Ministers of Information of Non Aligned Countries (COMINAC) that the network will effect a more sustained and efficient flow of news and information among member nations and other developing countries.
India was represented at the conference by P K Tripathi, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The ministers noted that despite efforts by the Iranian News Agency's (IRNA) to make the Non Aligned News Agencies Pool a success "it has for many years been inactive due to declining support from member countries."
The Kuala lumpur Declaration on Nam Information and Communication Collaboration said members should urgently take advantage of the decreasing costs of communications and easy access to internet services worldwide to increase information linkages among them.
Reviewing global trends and developments in information and communication, the Ministers noted that the "dissemination of discriminatory and distorted information of events taking place in developing countries" continued unabated.
The declaration adopted by the ministers at the end of their two-day meeting here emphasised the importance of ICT and facilitate information dissemination and doing away with the digital divide.
The ministers also agreed to renew efforts to revitalise Broadcasting Organisation of Non Aligned Countries (BONAC) to ensure that it played its role in disseminating information via radio and television among member nations and other countries.
Regretting the continued tendency of the western media in sterotyping and profiling perpetrators of terrorist acts as muslims, the Ministers agreed that NAM should initiate steps for establishing international norms, ethics and/or code of conduct for the media.
Malaysia has agreed to host the NNN or Triple N and underwrite its start-up cost. The ministers said a committee of member countries should be set up to work with Malaysia to formulate operational guidelines for the establishment of NNN.
In his speech yesterday, the Malaysian premier said that each nation had the right and freedom to tell its own story.
