Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 3
Trend:
Creation of a body, which will bring together journalists of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states and which will function as a single platform in the field of information, has been discussed at various levels for several years already, said Azerbaijani president’s aide for public and political affairs Ali Hasanov.
He made the remarks at a conference of the Journalists Association of OIC Member States in Baku.
“It is encouraging that practical steps are being taken to implement this initiative, and we hope that it will be seriously supported by the OIC in the future,” Hasanov said.
He said that the OIC, which has weight in the international system, has already established itself as a successful model of the unity of the Muslim countries, made an important contribution to the expansion of mutually beneficial relations between the member countries of political, economic and cultural cooperation.
Hasanov noted that the OIC also made an important contribution to strengthening of Islamic solidarity and protecting the interests of peoples in Muslim countries.
The OIC is also an extremely important platform for discussion of complex global and geopolitical processes concerning the Muslim countries, the existing issues and finding ways for their settlement, the formation of a common stance regarding the observed threats and pressure, said Ali Hasanov.
It is encouraging that a lot of experience was gained in this field, he added.
“At present, different negative processes causing a blow to stability, including in many Muslim countries, and on the other hand, attempts to form erroneous opinions about the Islamic religion, which embodies the reconciliation, peace and tranquility, continue to be of concern to us,” Hasanov noted.
Political events, which frustrated the Arab world, including the struggle of the Palestinian people for national independence, the military operations in Syria, the military aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as other problems of this kind are important factors, which create obstacles for sustainable peace and security, he said.
Hasanov added that these important factors also create obstacles for sustainable development in the Islamic world, and they make it necessary to mobilize efforts of the Islamic countries for the sake of a common goal.
“We have to note with regret that the Islamophobic circles of the West and transnational media outlets show events and processes taking place in the Muslim world in a one-sided manner and mostly in a biased form,” he said.
“As it is known, over 20 years have passed since Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region,” Hasanov said. “National, cultural and religious monuments, mosques along with all infrastructure have also been destroyed on historical lands of Azerbaijan. The UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other authoritative organizations have adopted the relevant decisions and resolutions on the liberation of these territories from the occupation.”
“Unfortunately, all this had no concrete results,” he added.
Hasanov noted that Armenia ignores not only international law, decisions of authoritative organizations, but also by adding religious coloring to its occupation policy in order to justify its own unfair position, tries to denigrate the Islamic values, take advantage of Christian solidarity factor, as well as opportunities of Islamophobic circles of the West, the leading media resources and in some cases, Armenia achieves this.
“It is safe to say that other Muslim countries with similar problems also regularly face such cases,” Ali Hasanov noted. “These facts show great need for expansion of interrelations in the sphere of information, alongside with strengthening of Islamic solidarity,” he said.
“In the modern period of a single information space, transnational media outlets, the information exchange has become an important factor in the development of intergovernmental relations, an effective means of ensuring the formation and expression of international public opinion,” Hasanov noted.
Therefore, the formation of mobile information policy, defining of the activity priorities required in the global network, provision of countries’ information security are issues of importance for each state, including Islamic countries, he added.
Hasanov noted that serious decisions to strengthen cooperation in the information sphere were adopted at the 9th and 10th meetings of the information ministers of the OIC member countries in 2012 in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, and in 2014 in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
Ensuring fairness and solidarity in the media outlets of Islamic countries, coordination of activities of the mass media outlets with this purpose, creation of joint media institutions, and organizing their purposeful activity, development of mutual relations with leading global media outlets in the name of the Muslim world’s interests, organization of forums and conferences on topics of interest and other similar measures currently become increasingly topical, he added.
“We believe that this will be a favorable opportunity for media representatives of all the Muslim countries as well,” Hasanov noted. “In order to ensure successful solution to this problem, increase the level of information exchange between Muslim countries, remove third-party and negative influences on Islamic solidarity, promote more effectively the highest spiritual values of the Islamic world and other issues the newly formed Journalists Association of the OIC Member States should be supported, and comprehensive assistance to its purposeful activity should be provided.”
“The current participation of ambassadors, journalists of the OIC member states in the conference can be understood as an expression of support for this initiative,” he added. “Once again, we hope that this initiative will be actively discussed and the appropriate decisions on the organization of effective work of the journalistic association will be adopted at the next meeting of the information ministers of the OIC member countries.”