Mahfuzur Rahman Malangi :
Since its inception in 1985 SAARC has gone through a long uneven way. The very unique scenario for the SAARC is- it holds 1.6 billion or about 23.4% of the world population in just around 3% land area of the world. And its total GDP is only 6.66% of the world GDP. Under the umbrella of SAARC arena that directly or indirectly affects lives of billion are taken to be addressed. Among areas of direct SAARC concern are economic development, trade relations, education, health, agriculture, gender, poverty, terrorism and development of relation in the sector of information and communication. To attain the goal of creating a people’s friendly media, SAARC Information Centre (SIC) was formed by the member states in 2005.
In the present world, information and mass communication is influenced by the western Media. Considering this UN and Non-Aligned Movement have employed attempt to create ‘New World of Information and Communication Order and Non-Aligned News Pool’ in the past. However, they have not been able to trigger expected change. Till today, information and communication in developing countries continue to be influenced by developed nations.
The need to change this scenario is a long cherished vision of the people and the media workers of this region. SIC is a modality to step to reach the desired peak. SIC is working to this end. Just three weeks before the ensuing SAARC Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal SIC organized a conference of the media people from its member states. The conference was held on 4-5 November 2014 in Kathmandu. Except Afghanistan delegates from other seven member states including Bangladesh participated in the conference.
Bangladesh delegation was comprised of six members led by the Principal Information Officer (PIO) Tasir Ahmed. Among the others were Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Information Md. Gaji Ali Akbar, Senior Deputy Principal Information Officer (Press) Mahfuzur Rahman Malangi from PID and Deputy Director General (News) Naryan Chandra Shil from Bangladesh Betar. Delegates from the other countries were also of high profile. For example, Indian delegates comprised of five persons including the Director General of Doordarshan and the Director General of All India Radio.
Free flow of information among the SAARC countries was the key point to discuss in the conference. In the member countries it is a long cherished expectation and desire of the people. SIC rightly hit the point to cater the need of the people. Bangladesh played a significant role with its potential that helps the conference to attain success.
The conference underlined the need to enhance the flow of SAARC-information through media-networks besides making specific observations on ways to enrich SAARC Media Forum and augment capacity of SAARC journalists for better acceleration of information flow. The theme Ñ SARRC issues and content creation for media Ñ was also in the lime light of discussion in the conference.
An independent ‘SAARC News Agency’ to parallel and to compete with the western news agencies was in the highlight of the delegates brooding. It brings down ultimate vivacity among the delegates. People’s needs and demands were reverberated in the two days conference from the participants’ voice. After a vivid discussion for two days, delegates from the seven countries adopted the following nine points Kathmandu resolution:
1) To organize SAARC Media Forum, 3 weeks ahead of the SAARC Summit to deliberate on matters related to free flow of information (text, audio, video, stills and data) among SAARC countries;
2) To set up SAARC Media Agency to cater to the media needs/requirements of audiences in SAARC countries, strengthen knowledge-management initiatives and promote information flow in the region through a common SAARC perspective;
3) To take initiative and undertake capacity building activities for enhancing skills of media professionals engaged in content creation and dissemination among SAARC member countries;
4) Set up a dedicated portal to be managed by SAARC Information Centre for mobilizing new media / social media initiatives for mutual sharing among SAARC countries;
5) To involve SAARC media agencies and platforms to focus on content creation for coverage of SAARC activities, policies, socio-economic development programmes, best media practices and success stories etc;
6) To promote exchange of visits by media professionals (including producers) among SAARC member countries on a periodic basis;
7) To facilitate media institutions in SAARC member countries to evolve internal mechanisms to ensure ethical practices, integrity, independence, credibility, and trustworthiness as per the expectation of the people;
8) The Conference of the Media Forum of SAARC unanimously resolved to expedite implementation of earlier resolution passed in Dhaka in 1998 on having an exclusive SAARC satellite; and
9) To evolve a common SAARC Broadcast Code to ensure objective presentation of facts.
The above resolution, if implemented, can be helpful for the people of this region to enjoy free flow of information. We need credible agencies which will be able to compete with the renowned media like BBC, CNN, Aljazeera etc. For institutional development of the SAARC countries, such media will no doubt play substantial role. Let’s live keeping our heads high. We want to be proud as citizen of this region.
