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Africa-Malaysia to Launch News Network to Counter Bias
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 (News Agencies) - Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, will launch the Smart News Network International (SNNI), a news exchange designed to counter inaccurate reporting on developing countries, news agencies reported.
It will be jointly launched in Kampala on Saturday with Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, in conjunction with the four-day Global 2001 Southern Africa International Dialogue (SAID) beginning on Thursday, according to the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.
Media organizations from seven African countries and four from Malaysia - the official Bernama news agency and three leading newspapers (The New Straits Times, The Star and Utusan Malaysia) - are the initial participating members in SNNI.
The African participants include the Mozambique News Agency, the Daily News of Botswana, Namibia Today, Buanews of South Africa, New Vision of Uganda and the Herald of Zimbabwe.
With the launch of SNNI Global 2001, the Southern Africa International Dialogue in Kampala, Uganda, will mark a significant step forward for the advocates of the smart partnership concept.
Member countries of the Smart Partnership International Dialogue, who will converge at Lake Victoria, will issue a mission statement at the end of the dialogue to state their support for the news network, which hopes to counter Western media misrepresentation and biased reporting on developing nations, IRNA added.
The establishment of SNNI will be seen as one of the concrete achievements made since 1995, when the first Langkawi International Dialogue was held in Malaysia's northern island resort of Langkawi.
Briefing the press on the dialogue's proceedings, Prime Minister's Representative to the Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management (CPTM) Omar Abdul Rahman said 11 news agencies and newspapers have participated by contributing articles to the network via its website SNNI.org
Under the arrangement, participating media organizations would contribute news, features, photographs and video images to the website on a daily basis.
The server of the website is located in Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor at Cyberjaya, about 30 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur.
The idea of a news network was debated in August of last year in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, during the fourth Southern Africa International Dialogue (SAID).
The leaders of participating nations felt that establishing a news network and forging close cooperation among developing countries would help them counteract the Western media's biased reporting.
They had examined the issue comprehensively and asked themselves why their countries relied so much on Western media like the Cable News Network (CNN) and Reuters for news about their own region.
At the Global 2000-Langkawi International Dialogue, held in November of last year, the idea came close to becoming a reality after a discussion between senior editors from Malaysia and African nations and the leaders.
Omar explained that the SNNI would function as "an alternative source of news on developing countries."
"It is not to replace the established western media ... it is just an additional news channel on developing countries," he added, said IRNA.
Several non-member countries of SAID also expressed an interest in being SNNI members.
On the dialogue in Kampala, Omar said leaders would be discussing "enhancing the climate for foreign direct investment [FDI] through smart partnership."
The African nations would like to identify ways to attract FDIs to the continent, Omar said.
"President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda is keen on overcoming the problems affecting FDI inflow," he added.
About 450 participants from Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Ghana, Congo, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda, Sudan, Malaysia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Grenada will take part in the four-day dialogue.
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