Jordan calls for confronting terrorism, extremism at FANA conference

Jordanian State Minister for Media Affairs, Mohammad Momani, has called on Arab media institutions to confront all forms of terrorism and extremism and work as one team to address their devastating impact on individuals, communities, states as well as humanity. He said the media with its various tools should prepare plans and programmes and have a clear message to expose the falsehoods and misconceptions of extremism.

The minister made the remarks as he opened the 45th General Assembly of the Federation of Arab News Agencies, FANA, on behalf of the Prime Minister of Jordan, on Wednesday.

Mohammed Jalal Al Raisi, Executive Director of the Emirates News Agency, WAM, is participating in the two-day meeting.

Jordanian News Agency, Petra, quoted Momani as adding, "The media and media personnel should play their role to protect themselves, their communities and countries and help all forces to confront terrorism, prevent its causes and limit its impact."

He added Arab media institutions, especially the official media, shoulder a major responsibility in defending the Arab nation and its culture and work at the same time to preserve the identity of this nation and protect it from various threats. "Preserving the identity does not contradict with dialogue, co-operation and interaction with other cultures around the world," the minister said.

Momani further said that increasing confidence in the official media is not the responsibility of governments only, but rather a national effort that should be carried out by various press and media institutions, mainly the responsible official media. He said that the tech-driven advance of the media and social media poses a major challenge to official media institutions and therefore, they are requested through continued co-operation and co-ordination, to keep pace with development in this sector to prevent non-experienced people from negatively affecting the media.

Momani also urged media institutions to draw up effective plans and programmes, and conduct dialogues to develop the media and rehabilitate human resources to enable them to perform their role and achieve development.

"Failure to find a just solution to the Palestinian issue, exacerbated problems and increased the suffering of the Palestinian people, " he said, adding that the international community is requested to arrive at a solution to this issue based on the two-state solution that guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The minister also spoke about the pressure placed on the Kingdom's health, education and services sectors as well as its development plans due to hosting a large number of refugees. He urged the international community to continue providing support to the refugees in various fields.

President of FANA and Kuwait News Agency's Board Chairman and Director General Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah, highlighted the importance of media outlets as well as new agencies in fighting terrorism as well as extremist ideologies.

He also affirmed the need for news agencies as well as importance of expanding them, adding that these agencies have a major and important role in fighting extremist ideologies that lead to terrorism and violence.

Al-Sabah said that FANA was able to enhance its position through participating in a number of international committees and reaching agreements with specialised internationals organisations.

Director General of Jordan News Agency, Faisal al-Shboul said Arab solidarity is possible despite all challenges, obstacles and horrific scenes of death and destruction, underlining the importance of working together to get over one of the hardest phases which Arabs go through.

"Despite the Federation's financial circumstances and the deliberate absence of some members, its administrative and technical professionalism will help it to be present in the media industry", said al-Shboul. He laid emphasis on the duty of media to stick to balanced address through raising awareness to confront threats.

FANA Secretary-General, Farid Ayar, said the federation is now capable of playing an active part in the dialogue with other media outlets to tackle attempts to discredit its members.

Further, he highlighted the importance of speedy news broadcasting from Arab news providers and to focus on substantive matters, including environment, human rights, economy, world markets and to consolidate the presence of the federation on the global arena.

During the meeting, the directors will discuss a host of issues, including means to enhance media and technical cooperation among FANA members and develop the media profession.

Other topics for discussions will include the economic and cultural files, FANA's website, as well as activities of FANA. FANA's membership includes 18 news agencies.