Multilateralism, regionalism should be reconsidered -- IRNA

In the Name of Allah

IRNA Country Report on
"The Quest for Global Media Balancing"
Presented to the 31st OANA Executive Board Meeting
Tehran, 15 November 2009



OANA President,
OANA Secretary General,
Mehr News Agency Managing Director,
Executive Board Members,
Distinguished Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The delegation of the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) would like to welcome participants of the Executive Board Meeting of OANA, which is being hosted by the Mehr News Agency, to the beautiful city of Tehran. We hope that all of you will have a fruitful and memorable stay in the Islamic Republic of Iran. We would also like to thank the host news agency for organizing the 31st meeting and wish a bright future for its management and staff.

Honorable Participants,
A brief look at the global media indicates that the mass media have transformed into one of the most significant institutions in today’s modern societies. The domineering potential of these media -- the power of one speaking into the brains of many -- is unprecedented.
In fact, by exercising influence in virtually every aspect of social and political life, the media have assumed a pivotal role in shaping the mindsets and becoming one of the primary means by which people learn about and interact with their world and amongst each other.
While the global media have penetrated national boundaries under the guise of freedom of expression and open access to information, what has yet to be openly discussed about the so-called channels of “free expression” and “free information” for dissemination of news are tightly controlled by the states that can afford to pay for launching the global media.
However, what these states fail to realize is that the real power of the media ultimately lies in stimulating new forms of creativity, critical thinking, understanding, caring and sharing; in questioning and challenging unjust power structures; and in helping communities to cooperate together to create their own development and progress visions.
We believe, this is why there is an urgent need for a global media balancing. And this can only materialize if we delve more deeply into what role the global media are playing in our society: how are they changing our perceptions of ourselves and our realities? what do the media mean for our pursuit of more meaningful lifestyles? how should we transform our current educational processes, our mindsets and spaces to address the challenges and opportunities of the media?
The global media are a very powerful tool for supporting dynamic and diverse forms of learning for mankind. However, most media producers, activists and educationists continue to view media as a medium for only one-way transmission of information. Such applications are becoming more feasible given the increasing accessibility of video cameras, community radio transmitters, desk-top publishing programs, personal websites, etc.
Critical media awareness -- the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and establish communications in a variety of forms -- is the first step towards unlocking the real potential of various media as empowering learning tools and rebuilding spaces for meaningful societal reflection.
Here are a couple of questions: How do the global media change our concepts of self, family, community, politics, art, nature, time, and distance? How do they influence the way we learn, what we know and what we are capable of knowing? Who controls the global media and what are their agendas? How do the global media reproduce or challenge unjust power structures? What new opportunities for human empowerment do the global media provide?
Key milestones have marked the evolutionary path of today’s mass media. If the 19th century witnessed the rise of cheap newspapers, there have been further significant developments in the electronic media as well as other trends in the current day. One such trend is the pace and scope of advanced technological change, in particular convergence -- the merging of various technologies, especially computing and telecommunications to create new forms of cultural products and new modes for their production and delivery.
The discrete entities of audio, video and print materials can now be offered over a variety of channels, including satellite, cable television and the internet. However, convergence poses significant challenges for media governance. Programs that were once only delivered over air or via cable are now used with a combination of a variety of channels, including the internet, enhanced telephone lines, fiber optics, high-speed leased lines, satellites, and a host of wireless digital technologies.
These new resultant media have the potential to become de facto broadcasters and/or news agencies. Faced with this complicated structure, even well-equipped and skilled regulators in affluent nations have chosen not to regulate the new media for their own objectives.
Today the need is to strengthen the ownership and control of global media, while concentration of ownership and media control is not a new trend. In fact it dates back to over 130 years when control of the worldwide market for news was exercised by a media cartel which consisted of three European news agencies that signed an agreement dividing the world news market among them, enabling them to eliminate competition.
It is to be noted that media have significantly featured in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) activities from the earliest times. The exchange of activity was seen as a central defense of peace in the “minds of men” and various media were recognized as a means to facilitate this.
In the 1970’s, the debate on the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) represented for the first time that media and communications were argued in a truly global way. However there are few tangible effects today – than for the fact that such key issues such as media and communications were debated at all.
Accordingly, the term NWICO originated in discussions within the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), following the proposal for a “new international economic order,” and became the expression of the aspirations of many countries to democratize the international communication system and rebalance information flows worldwide. UNESCO played a key role in promoting the debate until the early 1980s, in particular through the work of an independent commission chaired by Irish Nobel Laureate Sean MacBride (UNESCO).
The commission's report, “Many Voices, One World” outlined the main international problems in communication in modern societies, particularly relating to mass media and news, considered the emergence of new technologies and summarized a kind of communication order, the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) to eliminate these problems and to further peace and human development.
This was adopted at the 21st General Conference of UNESCO in Belgrade in 1980 and continues to remain a milestone in the history of global debates around communication issues and global media balancing. In today’s climate of dominant orthodox positions, it is important to recall that a diversity of views did exist and that until very recently there is still widespread and serious discussion and division on what a future global media and communication system should look like.

Dear Board Members,
Based on the above discussion, IRNA would like to put forward the following recommendations regarding theme of our meeting today: The Quest for Global Media Balancing.
- A global network of media, including the news agencies, should be created with a demonstrable utility, to sustain the hope for all journalists world over.
- Based on professional and ethical reasons, multilateral and regional cooperation among news agencies, such as OANA, is the key to striking and promoting a global media balance.
We believe that an exchange of technical delegations and practical experiences among OANA member agencies will pave the way for enhancing qualitative uses of ICT.
- Multilateral forums should further be redesigned and promoted in the UN system to mobilize the international community to discuss and promote media development in developing countries.
Such forums would not only provide support for media projects but would also seek an accord to secure healthy environments for the growth of free and pluralistic media in developing countries.
- More than ever, we should strive to realize more effective media projects that would empower people to gain equitable access to knowledge and to express themselves.
Efforts made on projects on the most urgent priorities in communication development will certainly have far-reaching impacts on a broad range of fields covering, among others, the promotion of media independence, development of community media, radio and television organizations, modernization of national and regional news agencies, and training of media professionals.
- The global media should maintain a balance between competition and cooperation while striving to be mutually complementary, helpful and beneficial. The media should fully consider each other's practical circumstances; respond to each other's appeals through consultation while considering each other's interests.
- The global media can enhance exchanges and cooperation to seek common development to promote world peace and development through cooperation and exchanges with foreign counterparts in issues of news communication, human resources and information technologies.
- By analyzing the current global situation and assessing the development trends of the global media industry and the rapid advancement of emerging technologies, we should continue to safeguard the legitimate rights and interest of our national news organizations and facilitate media exchange in accordance with each country’s laws and regulations.
- The media should on no account abandon their social responsibility and role in public welfare. Because it is vitally important that worldwide media organizations enhance communication and cement cooperation amongst them to accelerate development and strengthen peace world over.
- Journalists should be helped and encouraged to create awareness and become the driving force behind environmental protection in their respective countries. This can only be materialized when we join hands in developing meaningful media environments in which people can express their concerns, investigate, discuss, gain knowledge and reject violence world over. Then and only then can we be able to create a global media balancing.

Mr. President,
Honorable Friends,
Meanwhile IRNA, as a member of the Executive Board of the Organization of Asia Pacific News Agencies, would like to present before the board a brief report of its activities in the field of news dissemination within the OANA as well as the professional achievements it gained over the past year and a half.
By utilizing the advanced Information and Communication Technology (ICT), IRNA has continued its march forward progressively. Deputy Managing Director of IRNA for Information Technology in his report will inform the Technical Experts Group about these accomplishments.
Considering the ICT development and our capacity to use this technology, it was stressed in the meeting of the World News Congress held in Estepona, Spain, in 2008 that IRNA is planning to establish a news clips department.
IRNA suggests that the OANA website is equipped with news clips and trusts that the technical experts group will pursue the issue.
With just over 75 years of experience, IRNA has endeavored to boost practical and professional levels of news, training, and technical operations. This has gained more momentum after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Also to raise the professional levels of its personnel and to enhance the journalism skills in the country, IRNA established the School of Media Studies in 1997. It offers ‘on-the-job’ training courses and focuses on practical aspects. We have raised the level of knowledge of our personnel to such an extent that there has been a 75 percent increase in the number of graduates and 107 percent of post-graduates and PhDs over the past eight years.
The school also offers courses at BA level in journalism and translation of news, and an associate degree in photojournalism, thereby raising the level of knowledge of other media in the country.
Regarding bilateral and multilateral cooperation, the school has scheduled and hosted a number short-term and mid-term training workshops in journalism for some foreign news agencies based on mutual contracts.
We have signed cooperation agreements with over 70 news agencies and are currently exchanging news with more than 35 news agencies. IRNA has established 60 local and 30 foreign bureaus and file news services in Persian, English, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Serbian, French, Spanish, and Turkish languages.
IRNA currently publishes seven dailies and periodicals in Persian, English, and Arabic and one in Braille language, the pioneering one of its kind in the Middle East, for visually-impaired Iranians. We wish to state here that these newspapers are ready to cooperate with their counterparts within OANA.
During the past two years, IRNA has also made another leap by establishing a youth branch called BORNA News Network which responds to news queries of the youth.
Here, I would like to draw your attention to the following figures which summarize IRNA’s contribution of news stories for OANA website under Antara' news agency's management, since June 2008:

2008 2009
June 175 January 178
July 186 February 189
August 194 March 167
September 201 April 158
October 192 May 162
November 187 June 172
December 196 July 176
August 164
September 132
ctober 153



It delineates the number of news stories while their percentage in terms of subject has been: 50% general, 20% political, 20% economic and 10% varied stories related to sports, science, etc.

Respected Colleagues,
We are all aware that securing a direct and balanced flow of information among news agencies of the region, which is inhabited by over half of the world's population, has been the main objective behind the establishment of OANA. This meeting yet again reminds us of our close mutual cooperation over the past 48 years, and of the need to continue this professional alliance for the benefit of the peoples of the region.
The Asia-Pacific nations with high capacity in different fields, which account for over 50 percent of world gross product, some 50 percent of its trade turnover, 60 percent of its maritime, the world's largest financial reserves and science-intensive technologies, have the right to learn about ongoing events through sources related to them.
Indisputably, news agencies play a pivotal role in dissemination of news through its agencies so much so that we can boast of OANA member states as being responsible for two-thirds of disseminated information and news across the world, thus influencing world media challenges.
The world is witnessing tremendous changes in Asia; regional, political and cultural developments are catching the eye of global interests as well, while international news agencies, major television networks and rest of the world's media focus on Asia more than ever.
And as they reinforce their news coverage of Asia, they are also boosting their marketing activities and distribution of services and products in the region. They have for so long, been covering Asian news in their own eyes and perception, and this trend has been gaining momentum.
We owe this to nothing else but today's modern information and communication technologies (ICT), especially the internet which has tremendously changed the way people live and how they relate to each other. With the ICT at our disposal in the Asia and Pacific region, it will be in our interest if we utilize this technology and endeavor to strengthen cooperation to disseminate news and information more speedily among member agencies.
Despite regional convergence and south-south cooperation and the progress of ICT, which has paved the way for disseminating news more rapidly, we still face obstacles before one-way flow dissemination of news and information in over 50 percent of the world population.
In sum, the urgent need is thus to make every effort to avail the opportunities at hand to balance the information flow. This could materialize if we further strengthen the news coalitions of NNN, FANA, IINA (International Islamic News Agency), ECONA, ACSNA and OANA to enable us to overcome obstacles in the way of imbalanced flow of information. Multilateralism and regionalism should be once again considered seriously.
OANA will turn 50 in coming years. We do hope that there will be more progress and solidarity within OANA in the days to come, in the interests of the quest for global media balancing.

Dear Colleagues,
Before concluding, on behalf of IRNA management and staff, I would like to once again thank the Mehr News Agency and OANA Secretariat for suggesting such a timely and vital theme for our annual meeting.
Let me also thank each one of you for your attention and wish you a safe journey back.

End