Tuesday, 27 November 2007,
KRG
Rome (AKI)
The KRG is planning to set up a Kurdish media city.
The Kurdistan regional government in Iraq is planning to set up a Kurdish media city which will act as a hub for media and communications in the region and also attract investment to northern Iraq.
This is according to the Kurdistan regional government's civil society minister, George Yousif Mansour.
On Monday, Mansour paid a visit to the Rome headquarters of Adnkronos, a leading Italian news agency. The minister asked Adnkronos International (AKI) to help turn such a project into reality.
Mansour held a meeting with the director of Adnkronos and president of the GMC-Adnkronos media group, Giuseppe Marra. He said that the media city would be based in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil, and would cost 400 million dollars.
The project will have an initial capital of 40 million dollars, with 60 percent of the project covered by the Kurdish government and the remaining 40 percent to be covered by a Dubai-based film and television company.
The aim of the project is to attract the international media to the northern regions of Iraq. The Media City will include television studios, a hotel, shops and places to live for those involved in media production.
Mansour said that in this way they hope to create professional opportunities as they develop the media and tourism industries in the region.
Initially the hub will be able to transmit to 60 television stations and will eventually increase this number to 120.
The political advisor to Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, Gorgs Y. Bakoos, and Iraq's ambassador to the Vatican, Albert Yelda, were also present at the meeting in Rome on Monday.
Mansour thanked AKI for its "impartiality in its reporting on Iraq" and praised the news agency for the training programme in place for four Iraqi journalists at AKI's Arabic news service. The project is sponsored by the Italian foreign ministry's Task Force Iraq programme.
Mansour said that while "information represents the so-called 'fourth estate'" it was important to remember that the news has both "destructive and useful aspects".
The Iraqi minister stressed the need for "neutral, credible and objective" information and that the media "needs to build bridges between communities, populations and societies".
"The media professional does not have to be a social reformer, but has the duty to transmit the news in as objective a way as possible," he said.
Mansour said that "the media tends to concentrate on security issues when discussing Iraq, while Iraq actually represents so much more, having been the cradle of civilisation and a country with history and culture."
Bakoos, also said that the Western and Arabic media tended to concentrate too much on security issues in Iraq "without giving sufficient attention to the efforts at political, social and economic reconstruction" and said that AKI played a role in "giving a more balanced view of Iraq."
This is according to the Kurdistan regional government's civil society minister, George Yousif Mansour.
On Monday, Mansour paid a visit to the Rome headquarters of Adnkronos, a leading Italian news agency. The minister asked Adnkronos International (AKI) to help turn such a project into reality.
Mansour held a meeting with the director of Adnkronos and president of the GMC-Adnkronos media group, Giuseppe Marra. He said that the media city would be based in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil, and would cost 400 million dollars.
The project will have an initial capital of 40 million dollars, with 60 percent of the project covered by the Kurdish government and the remaining 40 percent to be covered by a Dubai-based film and television company.
The aim of the project is to attract the international media to the northern regions of Iraq. The Media City will include television studios, a hotel, shops and places to live for those involved in media production.
Mansour said that in this way they hope to create professional opportunities as they develop the media and tourism industries in the region.
Initially the hub will be able to transmit to 60 television stations and will eventually increase this number to 120.
The political advisor to Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, Gorgs Y. Bakoos, and Iraq's ambassador to the Vatican, Albert Yelda, were also present at the meeting in Rome on Monday.
Mansour thanked AKI for its "impartiality in its reporting on Iraq" and praised the news agency for the training programme in place for four Iraqi journalists at AKI's Arabic news service. The project is sponsored by the Italian foreign ministry's Task Force Iraq programme.
Mansour said that while "information represents the so-called 'fourth estate'" it was important to remember that the news has both "destructive and useful aspects".
The Iraqi minister stressed the need for "neutral, credible and objective" information and that the media "needs to build bridges between communities, populations and societies".
"The media professional does not have to be a social reformer, but has the duty to transmit the news in as objective a way as possible," he said.
Mansour said that "the media tends to concentrate on security issues when discussing Iraq, while Iraq actually represents so much more, having been the cradle of civilisation and a country with history and culture."
Bakoos, also said that the Western and Arabic media tended to concentrate too much on security issues in Iraq "without giving sufficient attention to the efforts at political, social and economic reconstruction" and said that AKI played a role in "giving a more balanced view of Iraq."
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