The first India-League of Arab States Media Symposium, bringing together senior officials, journalists and editors from both sides, will be held in New Delhi on 21 August 2014. The External Affairs Minister will inaugurate the Symposium on 21 August 2014 at at 10:00 hrs at Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi.
This Symposium seeks to enhance India-Arab League understanding and friendship in the field of media, promote bilateral cooperation and exchange at all levels and in various forms. Both sides will also discuss the ways to use various means of media to promote cooperation between their respective media establishments, enhance interactions, offer assistance and facilities for the journalists. The forum will also hold deliberations on the use of media for promoting the economic and commercial relations between the Arab countries and India.
This Symposium stems from the new Memorandum of Co-operation (MoC) signed between India and the Arab League in December 2013. As part of enhancing our engagement with the 21 member League of Arab States (LAS), India and LAS, late last year, signed a MoC with an attached Executive Programme (EP) on the Arab-India Cooperation Forum scheduled for 2014-15. Recognizing the value of the media’s role in India and the Arab world, and with an objective of promoting deeper and more meaningful interaction between our media organisations and journalists, this EP included specific proposals, including the media symposium, for strengthening cooperation in the media sector.
The media symposium will see participation from journalists and senior media personalities from 16 Arab League States, 4 officials from the Arab League Secretariat, Cairo as well as 18 prominent Indian media personalities including CEO, Prasar Bharati. The discussions spread over three sessions, will cover the following three themes- ‘Utilization of Media for Arab and Indian public and enhancement of media friendship, promotion of free exchange of information and review of Arab and Indian media experiments and finally, scope for media cooperation between India and the Arab countries’.
