TEHRAN – Iranian journalist Emad Abshenas, the representative of Sputnik, a media brand launched by Rossiya Segodnya News Agency in Iran, called the Tehran press exhibit a great success for the country.

“This has been a good idea and a great success for Iran, having been run for a long time and now in its 21st edition,” Abshenas told the Tehran Times on Monday.

He was attending the exhibition to introduce Rossiya Segodnya and discuss the regulations and laws in support of journalists in war zones.

“The Tehran press exhibit is one of the few exhibits in the world that is held annually specifically for the media. I do not think any press exhibit is held in any other country regularly every year like this one, where the press can present their work and directly communicate with their audience,” he added.

“Here the media can communicate with the audience directly. At other times, if an audience member has an opinion, he can write a letter to the chief editor but cannot directly communicate or meet face-to-face. This could be the best feature of this exhibit,” he noted.

He further added, “All the world’s media want to communicate directly with their audience. Today a one-way connection is outdated since the readers of the press and websites believe they have the right to express their ideas about the news they read, and want to give comments.

“And if this option is not provided by the media, the reader would choose another media. And here in this exhibit, the media has a good chance to evaluate their work and try to improve themselves,” he explained.

The journalist also talked about the results and the achievements of the exhibit and said, “I believe it is a good exhibit and I think the organizers have done their best, but if the exhibit turns into a media forum or an international forum, it will be better for Iran and those who want to know about Iran and what is going on in the country”.

He also expressed regrets that the Iranian press mostly focuses on domestic topics, adding, “One of the problems we face at the English newspapers published in Iran is the lack of native journalists and lack of attention we pay to the journalism.

“Anther problem is that the English media has not been able to secure a favorable position for themselves in the world. That is, most of the news items and articles are copy-paste and actual production is even less. The readers are not looking for copy-paste articles they have already seen on other websites,” he emphasized.

He added, “We need to present something new that one cannot find on the internet on other websites and that would be articles and interviews. And this would require a substantial investment along with professional work that needs to be done,” he proposed.

“We have the power to compete with the world media but first we need to achieve a standard level,” he asserted.

His view on making the exhibit provincial was not positive and proposed that the Tehran exhibit could establish a media forum where world figures could come together and discuss the Iranian press.

“At the media forum, different figures could attend and world figures could be invited to discuss topics including the media as well as a variety of other issues,” he concluded.

The 21st Exhibition of Press and News Agencies, Iran’s most significant media showcase, is underway at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla.

The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance also paid a visit to the exhibit and several pavilions. He warmly received the pavilion of Tehran Times and called the English daily a very valuable and experienced English language newspaper.

The press exhibit where Iranian press is displaying their products is also the location of several meetings being attended by world media representatives.

Ramazan Bursa from Kudus TV, a Turkish satellite TV channel; Stephane Barbier, AFP’s Tehran Bureau Chief; Yakup Aslan, Iran’s representative from Turkish Ulusal Kanal; and, Kristin Dailey from the Daily Star, the Lebanese English-language daily, are among the guests expected to attend and introduce their media at the exhibit, which will be running until Friday.

Photo: A poster for the 21st Exhibition of Press and News Agencies

RM/YAW
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