Arab information ministers on Wednesday agreed to translate “words into actions” at the end of a gathering that produced self-criticism of the Arab media’s “failure to communicate Arab causes and concerns.”
“We should translate immediately the recommendations we have adopted today into action,” their Lebanese host, Ghazi Aridi, said at the closing of the 34th meeting of Arab information ministers, held for the first time in Beirut.
Support for the Intifada and for the people of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon in their resistance to Israeli occupation topped the list. Recommendations were also made to build a telecommunications network and training centers. More specific recommendations were also made, such as to “pay more attention” to Africa and build an information center in Somalia, according to the Lebanese Daily Star.
The president of the Permanent Arab Information Council, Amin Basyouni, who was reelected for another term at the gathering, read out the ministers’ recommendations, which were very similar to the proposals presented by the council during its first meeting Saturday.
Recommendations included publicizing Israeli war crimes, supporting Lebanon and Syria’s struggle for liberating the rest of their territory, supporting Sudan through the media, cooperating with Libya in the Lockerbie case, drawing up a “comprehensive Arab media strategy,” and coordinating the use of Arab satellite channels.
Asked whether any of the recommendations were meant to curb the activities of any specific station, such as Qatar’s Al Jazeera, Basyouni denied any such intention, said the daily.
“No, no, we feel we live in an open world. We live in the age of satellite and of the Internet. So it's an age of cooperation, of give and take,” he said. “What we want to do is to speak to each other as Arabs and to give more importance to the international media.”
Earlier, President Emile Lahoud urged a delegation from the gathering to arrange more efforts by the Arab media in counteracting “Israeli and Zionist” media attempts to belittle the Arab cause.
The ministers recommended that a satellite channel be founded in English “and other languages” to address international public opinion. Previous reports said that a Hebrew channel was proposed.
They also agreed to produce a CD on Jerusalem from the Arab point of view and to adopt a strategy to combat the Jewish lobby in the US congress. The chief information officials called on the Arab media not to normalize relations with the “Zionist entity,” and not to “offer room for the Israeli point of view,” according to Alhram Arabic daily – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
