by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, Muslim World
Kuwait : Board Chairman and Director General of Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) Sheikh Mubarak Duaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah received Director of Kyrgyz National News Agency (KABAR) Kubanichbek Tabaldiyev, at KUNA headquarters on Monday.
Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah, who is also the chairman of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), held talks with Tabaldiyev, who is on a two-day official visit to Kuwait at the invitation of KUNA.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed relations of cooperation between KUNA and KABAR as well as ways of enhancing media coverage to serve the mutual interest of both countries. They also signed a cooperation agreement between the two agencies on the exchange of news items, photographs, ideas, expertise, in addition to the exchange of visits and coordination in international media forums.
KUNA director general expressed pride in the agreement that reflects the desire of both sides to support media cooperation and benefit from the successful and distinct expertise and the development of news agencies. He also stressed KUNA’s keenness to cooperate with various international media institutions to achieve mutual interests.
After the meeting, Tabaldiyev conducted a tour of the KUNA headquarters, where he and his accompanying delegation were briefed on the role of the various departments and the new media services provided by the agency.
—AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, Muslim World
Riyadh : Saudi Arabia’s Media Minister Turki bin Abdullah Al-Shabanah met the editors-in-chief of Saudi newspapers at the headquarters of Saudi Press Agency (SPA) in Riyadh.
During the meeting, they discussed media-related subjects and means to support and develop them. They also discussed the projects, initiatives and ideas to develop work in journalism.
Al-Shabanah stressed the importance of improving journalistic work, in such a way to reflect the advancement, development and prosperity Saudi Arabia has reached in all fields, and contribute to supporting the Kingdom’s march and strengthens its status at all levels.
He lauded the limitless support extended by the country’s leadership for the media work, which has resulted in a tremendous human and technological advancement in the media fields in the Kingdom.
Following the meeting, the editors-in-chief, accompanied by SPA President Abdullah bin Fahd Al-Hussein, toured the agency’s headquarters and got acquainted with the workflow in various administrations and sections.
—AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, News
Rajyavardhan Rathore
New Delhi : On the occasion of National Press Day, Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore on Friday said that a responsible and objective media was one of the most important institutions for nation building.
“Today on National Press Day, I convey my best wishes to all journalists. A responsible, objective media is one of the most important institutions for nation building,” he tweeted.
“My greetings to the Press Council of India as well, committed to maintaining ethics and high standards in print media.”
National Press Day is celebrated annually on November 16 to commemorate the establishment of the Press Council of India.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, World
Yangon : Two Reuters reporters were jailed on Monday for seven years for violating a state secrets act during their reporting of the Rohingya crisis, a court said, in the case that has drawn outrage for its attack on media freedom.
The two journalists were being tried since 2017 for breaching Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act while investigating violence against the Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine state by the army, the BBC reported.
Reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on the night of December 12, after meeting with two police officers who, according to the defendants, handed them confidential documents, the Efe news reported.
Since then, both have been held without bail and have appeared 30 times before the court, which started a preliminary investigation on January 9 and formally filed charges on July 9.
The case has been widely seen as a test of press freedom in Myanmar.
The journalists have maintained their innocence, saying they were set up by the police.
“I have no fear,” Lone, 32, said after the verdict. “I have not done anything wrong. I believe in justice, democracy and freedom.”
The two men, who both have families with young children, have been in prison since their arrest in December 2017.
“Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and press freedom anywhere,” said Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler.
Judge Ye Lwin told the court in Yangon the pair had “intended to harm the interests of the state”. “And so they have been found guilty under the state secrets act,” he said.
Lone and Soe Oo, 28, had been collecting evidence about the execution of 10 men by the army in the village of Inn Din in northern Rakhine.
During their investigation, they were offered the documents by two police officers, but were arrested immediately afterwards for the possession of those documents.
Authorities later launched their own probe into the killings, confirming the massacre took place and promising to take action against those who had taken part.
The BBC said that many would see this verdict as a crushing blow to freedom of the press in Myanmar and another setback for the democracy, three years after Aung San Suu Kyi’s party triumphed in free elections.
He said Lone and Soe Oo bowed their heads as the verdict was delivered. Wa Lone – who has missed the birth of his first child while being detained — protested his innocence once again as he was led away.
“We are extremely disappointed by this verdict,” Britain and the US have said, saying the court’s decision was “deeply troubling for everybody who has struggled so hard here for media freedom”.
The UN’s resident and humanitarian co-ordinator in Myanmar Knut Ostby said the UN had “consistently called for the release” of the journalists and that “a free press is essential for peace, justice and human rights for all. We are disappointed by today’s court decision”.
“The outrageous convictions show Myanmar courts’ willingness to muzzle those reporting on military atrocities,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.
“These sentences mark a new low for press freedom and further backsliding on rights under Suu Kyi’s government.”
The verdict comes a year after the crisis in Rakhine state came to a head when a Rohingya militant group attacked several police posts. The military responded with a brutal crackdown against the Rohingya minority.
The UN has said leading army figures in Myanmar should be investigated and prosecuted for genocide.
Media access to Rakhine is strictly controlled by the government so it is difficult to get reliable news from the region.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, News, Politics
Patna : An FIR was filed by an Urdu daily journalist here after he was threatened with death for a social media post that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would seek votes in the 2019 general elections in the name of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a police official said on Friday.
Seemab Akhtar, who works at ‘Farooqui Tanzeem’ published from Patna, was repeatedly threatened by an unidentified man for his social media post in Hindi: “Dekh lena agle chunao mein Modi Atal ki tasveer lekar roenge, aur bolenge bhai-behno inke naam pe dedo vote unka sapna pura karna hai… (in the next elections, Modi will carry Atal’s picture and shed tears asking for votes to fulfil the former PM’s dream).
According to Akhtar, he received threat calls and was asked not to post anything against the Bharatiya Janata Party on the social media. “I was threatened with death if I continued to write against the BJP.”
Bajpatti police station incharge Kanchan Bhaskar said that an FIR had been filed.
Sanjay Kumar, a Professor at Motihari Central University in east Champaran district, was beaten up by a group of people last Friday for his comments on the social media that appeared to criticise Vajpayee. A seriously injured Kumar was first admitted in Patna hospital, but later shifted to AIIMS in Delhi.
—IANS
