Jeddah (UNA) - The Union of News Agencies of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (UNA) held a roundtable on Saturday (October 26, 2024) entitled (Towards “Humanitarian Media”... The Role of the Press in Supporting Humanitarian Work and Highlighting Relief Efforts), with the participation of a number of news agency directors and international humanitarian experts.
The roundtable was organized on the sidelines of the “High-Level Ministerial Donors Conference on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Sahel and Lake Chad Region” held on Saturday at the headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah, jointly organized by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
At the beginning of the roundtable, the Director General of the Union, Mr. Mohammed bin Abdul Rabbo Al-Yami, stressed that “media” is one of the main elements in the equation of responding to humanitarian crises, and for this reason we find those working in the humanitarian field betting on the “power of media” and its spread to shed light on humanitarian conditions and encourage a response to them through support and relief activities.
Al-Yami added that there are some challenges that may prevent the media from playing this role, including the special agendas of some media outlets in dealing with crises, such that they highlight some and ignore others, without clear criteria, until the term “forgotten crises” became common in this field, referring to crises that were absent from the media lenses, and thus were absent from public circulation, despite the tragedies and difficulties they entail.
Al-Yami called for strengthening the partnership between institutions working in the humanitarian field, and opening direct communication channels to coordinate media coverage of the efforts and initiatives of humanitarian organizations.
Al-Yami praised the efforts of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center in this field, noting that the center's various humanitarian initiatives around the world are always accompanied by media and communication activity at the highest levels of professionalism, with the aim of highlighting the pioneering role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its wise leadership in extending a helping hand to those in need around the world, regardless of their religious and ethnic affiliations.
For his part, the official spokesman for the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, Dr. Samer bin Abdullah Al-Jatili, stressed in his speech the concept of “Communication for Development,” which is a participatory communication approach that focuses on achieving the desired results and seeks to maximize the impact and sustainability of development initiatives.
He explained that this concept, which is central whenever we talk about the role of the media in supporting humanitarian work, is centered around “persuasive communication,” which seeks to influence society, its organizations and individuals, in order to achieve comprehensive societal development.
Al-Jatili discussed the process of planning communication for development, indicating that this process includes several axes, including identifying stakeholders, building a communication plan, in addition to forming work teams and creating focus groups, and developing local cooperation and partnerships.
Al-Jatili urged communication for development practitioners to cover the impact professionally, and to focus on human stories in covering and reaching the impact.
In turn, the Executive Director of the Emirates News Agency (WAM), Dr. Jamal bin Nasser Al Suwaider, called for launching initiatives within the framework of the Union of News Agencies of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries to enhance the joint action of member news agencies in the field of addressing humanitarian issues and highlighting the efforts of the OIC countries in this regard.
During his speech, the Director General of the Malian News Agency, Moussa Diarra, discussed aspects of the work of news agencies in the field of humanitarian media, indicating that agencies can contribute to raising awareness and mobilizing financial support and donations to alleviate humanitarian crises, in addition to providing early warnings.
Director of the Djibouti News Agency, Dr. Abdul Razzaq Ali Darniah, stressed the pivotal role of the media in enhancing community engagement in dealing with humanitarian crises.
The Director General of the Cameroon News Agency, Baba Wami, reviewed some of the media’s dealings in Cameroon and the West African region with the humanitarian crises witnessed in the region, indicating that this dealings played an important role in alleviating the impact of these crises.
For his part, Deputy Director of the Pakistan News Agency, Iqbal Mudassir, stressed the need for the media to enhance its cooperation with international relief organizations, indicating that by working closely with institutions such as the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, we as media professionals can ensure that our coverage is not only accurate but also in line with the facts on the ground.
During his intervention in the roundtable, the Director General of the Chadian News Agency, Khalil Mohamed Ibrahim, addressed some of the challenges facing news agencies in the African Sahel region in order to play an effective role in the field of humanitarian support, pointing in this regard to the lack of capabilities, the absence of a news space dedicated to humanitarian content, in addition to the weakness of coordination with international organizations working in the humanitarian field.
At the conclusion of its work, the roundtable issued a set of recommendations, including enhancing news exchange between news agencies and the media in general in humanitarian news content, enhancing coordination, partnership and communication channels between the media and international relief organizations, in addition to deepening the concept of “communication for development” in the media in a way that serves the comprehensive development of society.
The recommendations also included focusing media coverage on humanitarian stories and the individual nature of humanitarian crises, away from the language of statistics that may reduce human suffering to mere numbers, and working to build the capacities of professionals working in the field of humanitarian communication, in addition to being cautious of false information in humanitarian media and seeking to correct it to ensure that those in need receive the correct information about aid and other humanitarian work issues.
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