OIC to revive news bodies to counter 'Western bias'
Malaysiakini
Sep 28, 2006

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference is reviving two Saudi-based news agencies to counter biased Western reporting on Muslim countries.

Deputy Information Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the 57-member OIC, currently chaired by Malaysia, would relaunch the International Islamic News Agency (IINA) and the Islamic States Broadcasting Organisation (ISBO).

Ahmad Zahid said Muslim countries faced a campaign of bias by the Western media and that the OIC had to counter that challenge.

"The Western media has lost its credibility with all its biased campaigns of reporting against Muslim countries," he told reporters.

"We have to make our news more reliable and credible," he said, adding that Malaysia would chair ISBO for two years to help it get off the ground again.

The OIC set up both organisations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in the 1970s to focus on news about the Islamic world and Islamic affairs, but both failed to make inroads into the Muslim market.

Journalism centre

Ahmad Zahid said the OIC would draw on Malaysia's experience in setting up a news service for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in June that aimed to provide an antidote to Western media.

The OIC also plans to set up a journalism centre in Malaysia to train up reporters from Muslim countries.

"We have media from the West who are always suspicious of news coming in from the Middle East.

"With this centre we can create a good and positive image of the press from the Islamic countries," Ahmad Zahid said.

So far, 15 countries had agreed to be part of the training centre, he added, but gave no date for its launch.