JEDDAH, 10 September 2006 — The proposal to merge the International Islamic News Agency (IINA) and the Islamic States Broadcasting Organization (ISBO) met with widespread approval at yesterday’s meeting of senior officials of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) member states.
The two-day meeting is a prelude to the Seventh Session of the Islamic Conference of Information Ministers (ICIM) that begins in Jeddah on Wednesday.
The proposal to merge IINA and ISBO, first suggested by OIC Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, met instant approval from host Saudi Arabia and many other countries.
The IINA, the so-called specialized organ of the OIC, was established in 1972. Headquartered in Jeddah, its main objectives were to enhance and preserve the Islamic cultural heritage, strengthen ties among Muslims all over the world and increase understanding of them.
It, however, failed in achieving any of its objectives as pointed out by the OIC member states in their working papers at yesterday’s preparatory meeting.
In its working paper, the Kingdom’s Ministry of Culture and Information said the current situation of the both IINA and ISBO called for their restructuring.
The Saudi working paper pointed out the reasons behind the failure of the two organizations to live up to their stated aims when they were initially created. It blamed the organizations’ failure on “the slow implementation or rather lack of implementation of the resolutions adopted by the executive boards of these two institutions and poor cooperation and communication in news and programming with the Islamic states.”
It also blamed their ineffectiveness on the “decreasing level of contributions by the (OIC) member states to the budget of these two institutions, which made it impossible for them to implement the programming plans that are decided every year within the executive bodies.”
Turkish officials, too, backed the idea of IINA and ISBO merger. “Today, issues such as the clash of civilizations and Islamophobia are challenges that make an effective communications strategy among the member states all the more important,” they said in their list of proposals. “Although established with good intentions ... IINA and ISBO have not been able to live up to the exigencies of our times,” they said in their paper.
Among other proposals, Turkish officials suggested that an Internet news portal could be developed. “Each news agency from the member states should be asked to send a certain number of news items and pictures to the pool every day. Each contributing agency should be free to use all the news and pictures available in the pool. The pool could be made available to Western news sources as well.”
In addition to the text news, the Turkish officials felt, “a similar mechanism should be formed for visual media that would allow radio and television institutions of the member states to cooperate in a model similar to European Broadcasting Union.”
In order for the new unified news organization to be successful, Turkey said qualified and experienced professionals currently working in the news business in the member states should be employed. “Seminars and training programs should be organized in cooperation with internationally renowned news agencies and radio and television channels.”
In a paper on how to deal with the foreign media efficiently, the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information suggested several actions. Among them were to “strengthen the bonds with international television and radio channels as well as with strong media publications; to encourage Muslim businessmen to set up radio and television channels in the US, Europe, China and other countries; to make the best use of the Internet with a view to showcasing Islam and Muslims, correcting stereotypes and cliches about Islam and initiate serious and positive dialogue between religions and to reinforce relations between foreign-based civil society organizations and their counterparts in the Islamic world.”
The preparatory meeting ends today at the Jeddah Conference Palace. The proposals okayed by the senior information officials will then be taken up for discussion by the information ministers at their conference.
