TEHRAN—Media experts from Asia and Oceania discussed threats and opportunities for journalism at the 18th Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies General Assembly, which began on Monday in Tehran.

The event, in particular, raised effective strategies to counter Western media monopoly.

The opening speeches turned the spotlight on media as a tool for the promotion of truth and freedom, seeking new chapters in communication, and possible solutions for the challenges ahead.

Talking at the event, Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili pointed to mass media as a means to promote truth and freedom. "The Islamic Republic of Iran considers media as a tool for the promotion of truth and freedom for all countries of the world,” Esmaili said.

“Today, media is no longer a tool of power. It is power itself,” Esmaili said, adding that the media can be either in service of happiness for mankind and peace or a means of oppression, injustice, and division.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran supports popular, truth-seeking, and free media,” the minister said.

Ali Naderi, the managing director of the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), also stressed the need to establish a new order to counter “one-way information flow” from the West.

“A new order is being established in the world… Independent media can compete with one-way information flow to keep people worldwide informed of the news and information,” Naderi remarked.

“Today is a good opportunity for the representatives of prominent news agencies present in Tehran for the OANA meeting to observe the conditions in Iran… An independent media current is needed to disseminate the realities.”

A new chapter can begin in the fields of communications and media after the coronavirus pandemic from which the world has been suffering since December 2019, he pointed out.

Moreover, the IRNA chief reminded the attendees of the U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic, saying, “Iran has been under unfair sanctions for years and the media can fight such bans.”

To provide some much-needed framework, Kim Hyeong-jun, deputy director general of the South Korean Yonhap News Agency, also shared his views on cooperation among media.

“Members can propose new opportunities and each member has a chance to share its experiences,” Kim said.

“During this COVID pandemic, we should be able to ask our organization to discuss the challenges and opportunities… We must examine the opportunities and challenges and discuss solutions for them,” he stated.

“Since 1961, OANA has tried to help the exchange of experiences and cooperation among news agencies in the Asia-Pacific region and we have been able to follow this path.”

“We hope that this movement helps us to progress and move positively in the coming years,” Kim concluded.

In response to a reporter’s question on the sidelines of the event, Mehr Managing Director Mohammad Shojaeian Zanjani said the ongoing OANA meeting in Tehran shows Iran's true face amid the Western mainstream media's negative image of the Islamic Republic.

“The most important message of the conference is revealing the fact that contrary to the negative image that Western mainstream media have given of Iran in recent days, the meeting shows Iran's reality to the world and that there is the highest level of security in Iran and the Iranian capital Tehran.”

Shojaiean said the mainstream media are a means in the service of superpowers, stressing that independent countries' media like Iranian media must prioritize giving a true image of their countries to the world to repel warfare by the Western media.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Shojaiean said the OANA general assembly yields ample opportunity for the participating media outlets to reach agreements, bilateral or multilateral.

The Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies, which covers some two-thirds of the world population, has 43 members from 35 countries. IRNA, Fars and Mehr from Iran are also members to the media body.

The organization was founded in 1961 to promote interactions in the arenas of news articles and other mass media products to achieve a multi-sound information flow. The current OANA meeting picked “New Challenges for Journalism” as its focal theme.

AM/PA