State news agencies from the wider Arab region agreed on Monday that talks in Kuwait were paramount given the "status quo" around the world, highlighting such gatherings as instrumental in ratcheting up media cooperation. The 51st General Assembly of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA) represents an effort to ensure that news agencies around the region are on the "same page" when it comes to relaying information with "accuracy and reliability" to the public, they said. The talks come at a time of meteoric technological advancements in the media sector, said Qatar News Agency chief Ahmad Al-Rumaihi, citing the emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry as chief among those changes, behooving news agencies to employ such methods in their day-to-day operations. On the significance of the gathering, Oman News Agency chief Ibrahim Al-Azri said the region is going through a number of "unprecedented" political events, which call for more cooperation on pressing matters such as the "Palestinian cause," he underlined, while his Jordanian counterpart Fairooz Mubaideen highlighted the talks as a testament to the camaraderie within the region. On the agenda for the talks that kicked off in Kuwait earlier on Monday, the Jordanian official said it runs the gamut from the AI industry to the role of Arab media in swaying public opinion, while Tunis-Afrique Presse news agency chief Najeh Missaoui cited the talks as a platform for knowledge exchange. Source: Kuwait News Agency
