Muscat, Dec 15 - Fake news is a major challenge to the media and the social media fuels rapid spread of false news, according to speakers at 47th conference of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (Fana) hosted by the Ministry of Information in Muscat on Sunday. News agencies have a major role to verify the credibility of content and its sources, said Dr Abdullah bin Khamis al Kindi, Professor of Journalism and Electronic Publishing at Sultan Qaboos University, at the two-day conference inaugurated by Dr Abdulmunim bin Mansour al Hasani, Minister of Information.
The main focus of the conference is the role of news agencies in the fight against fake news. Clive Marshall, the head of the British Press Association, Maxim Menshev, Director-General of the Bulgarian News Agency, and Dr Farid Ayar, Secretary-General of the Federation of Arab News Agencies, spoke on the first day of the conference. Speakers during the session discussed the role of public awareness to verify the reliability of the news as well as the importance of trusting news agencies as the first source of information. Specialists stressed on the need of assisting the public or citizens to verify news. The speakers stressed the need to establish a platform of Arab news agencies that would be responsible for dealing with fake news.
Al Hasani assured on the importance of offering support to the federation through cooperation between Oman News Agency and the federation. “We are facing great challenges related False news,” the minister said, stressing that this conference is important to all news agencies. Mohammed al Araimi, Chairman of ONA, explained that given the current situation in the region, it is certainly a great responsibility and a heavy burden on Arab news agencies to inform the people about political and economic developments with clarity. Shaikh Mubarak al Subah, Chairman of Kuwait News Agency and President of Fana, said the federation made progress and tangible success in developing the business of agencies, whether in performance, tools or the media discourse.
Al Subah affirmed that the Arab media in general and the Arab news agencies in particular do not lack capabilities, experiences, competencies, but all what is needed is meaningful cooperation. He said Arab news agencies should invest more in manpower and training.
On the sidelines of the conference, a photo exhibition was also held featuring the development of the Sultanate under the prosperous era of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos and the heritage and culture in the Sultanate as well as natural scenes. The minister also honoured FANA president Shaikh Sabah.
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