A Turkish proposal to establish a broadcasting watchdog for the 57 Muslim countries coming under the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was officially approved at an OIC conference held in Gabon's capital Libreville on Thursday.
The decision effectively empowers the OIC with new tools to promote broadcasting of a positive image of the Muslim world on member-countries' television channels, Turkish media reported.
The OIC was established in 1969 to protect and promote the interests of Muslims worldwide.
Turkey first submitted the proposal to establish "The OIC Broadcast Regulatory Authorities Forum" at an OIC conference held on October 11-13, 2010 in Dakar, Senegal. The proposal was welcomed and approved for further exploration and the Forum held its inaugural meeting in Istanbul on November 17-18, 2011. Saudi Arabia will host its second meeting later in 2012.
The OIC describes the Forum as a platform "intended to promote coordination, communication and cooperation among the authorities in charge of regulating broadcasting in member-states, as well as to enhance the exchange of information, ideas and expertise on issues of common interest in the areas related to the services of the audiovisual media sector."
OIC officials say that the Forum will be used in close coordination with a satellite TV channel to be launched under the OIC. The OIC will use the international satellite TV channel to project the voice of the Muslim world, report on Islamic causes, defend Muslim interests within the framework of Islamic solidarity among OIC member-states and stand up to the repeated defamation campaigns against Islam and Muslims.
The draft resolution in this regard said that "particularly in this age of globalization, where so many voices are rising which claim to speak on behalf of Islam, and where defamation campaigns have multiplied against our noble faith and its symbols, it has become more necessary than ever to give serious consideration to the idea of launching an international satellite TV station under the umbrella of the OIC."
The proposal had received the support of all participants at the November 2011 Istanbul meeting, the reports said.
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