Muslim World Media Play Crucial Role In Supporting Palestinian Cause

From Zuriati Zulmi LIBREVILLE (Gabon), April 18 (Bernama) -- Muslim world media should take a closer look at the role of the information in supporting the Palestinian cause, a senior officer of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said here. OIC's director of information department Dr Isam Salim Shanti said it was necessary for the media to reveal Israel's aggressions against Al-Quds Al-Shareed, particularly the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as the regime's assaults and human rights violation against the Gazans. He also highlighted the need to handle Islamophobic campaigns by some Western parties through counter-media efforts to show the real principles of Islam as a tolerant and peaceful religion. In his speech here Wednesday, Dr Isam also hoped for a fruitful discussion at the Senior Officials Meeting of the Ninth Session of the Islamic Conference of Information Ministers (ICIM), specifically on the issue of cooperation and coordination among journalists and broadcasting agencies in the Muslim world. "We hope to see the best outcome in this session to benefit members of this organisation," he said at the session. The session got underway on Wednesday in the City of Democracy, in Libreville, Gabon, with the Senior Officials' Meeting in preparation for the ministers' meeting on Thursday. The meeting opened with the statements by the eighth and ninth sessions' chairmen and the representative of the OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, followed by the election of bureau members and adoption of the agenda and work programme. The agenda of the meeting includes discussing the role of the OIC in supporting the causes of Al-Quds Al Shareef and the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque, developing an integrated information plan to communicate with the non-OIC member states, and launching an Islamic TV Satellite channel under the name of the OIC. The new items on the agenda this year include establishing an OIC Muslim Journalists Union, preparing special information programme on Africa to project and promote its place and role in the Muslim world, and the progress made pertaining to the establishment of the OIC Broadcasting Regulatory Authorities Union. -- BERNAMA