IPS Director General, Mario Lubetkin, travelled to the Gulf, where he held meetings in Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In Qatar IPS Director General met Ahmad Saad Abdel Al Boainin, Director General of Qatar News Agency (QNA) and his staff, to explore enhanced cooperation between the two news agencies.

Furthermore, Lubetkin met Al Jazeera Arabic Channel’s Director of the News, Mustafa Souag, and Shafaat Khan, Head of Foreign Operations, Al-Jazeera Network to evaluate ongoing cooperation and strengthen future collaboration.

In the UAE Lubetkin visited the National Media Council (NMC) to meet officials including WAM (Emirates News Agency) Director General, Ibrahim Al-Abed. Lubetkin underlined the excellent level of relations between WAM and IPS and their close collaboration during the last decades through specific cooperation agreements of mutual benefit.

“It is important to tackle the new realities in the field of communication and information, in view of the geopolitical changes that are taking place in the world,” IPS Director General stressed. “The media should have the ability to analyse these phenomena in a context, especially media in the South, which means that they must explain to their audience how our situation is changing.”

Lubetkin explained why IPS news agency decided to devote all its professional work to generating the indispensable interpretive analysis of these and other phenomena. “This is the way we believe can help people better understand the events and interpret them,” he added.

Media is perhaps the most powerful force today in shaping our understanding of events and peoples in the world around us. As a global news agency whose mission is to give a voice to the South and promote dialogue and cooperation, IPS has seen first hand how its work has the potential to bring together people from different cultural backgrounds. The alliance among civilizations is one of our core themes. Our partner QNA brings news from the UN AoC ongoing in Doha, Qatar.

Doha, December 11 (QNA) – Helping nations going through transition as well as empowering women and youth are among the five imperatives vital to shape our future generations United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said here Sunday.

In his address to the fourth United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Forum which opened at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha today, he said, “Our differences are nothing compared to our shared humanity. As I begin my second term as UN Secretary General I have identified five generational opportunities to decisively shape our future for decades to come.” Read more »

Soraya Rodríguez and Mario Lubetkin. Credit: AECID.

The meeting ‘Cooperation with the Arab world: a new scenario for communication’, held in Madrid (September 7-8, 2011) as part of the Week of Spanish Cooperation, analyzed the effects of the revolutions and process of transformation in the Arab World – Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain – on development aid. It also looked at how communication can help build bridges of understanding between citizens and institutions in the Mediterranean region. This is the second workshop organized by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID) and Inter Press Service (IPS), which brought together Spanish journalists and colleagues from other regions. Read more »

ROME, Apr (IPS) – The IPS Arabic service has strongly increased its presence in Arab media over the last few months, amidst wide-spreading Arab popular uprisings.

Around 50 new ‘news-blogs’ and new online small size media have been tracked using the IPS Arabic service, as well as new specialised cultural, political and religious regional networks.

This represents around a 45% increase in IPS publications in Arab media, with a current total of around 170 printed and online media and blogs in 18 Arab countries. Read more »

Dear IPS Reader,

In the past months, the world has been witnessing a series of events in North Africa and the Middle East that are reshaping the region and resonating globally. As I write today, attention is focused on Libya and Bahrain. IPS News Agency is able to count on its network of local journalists expertly covering developments, providing valuable context and presenting unique frontline analysis of the volatile situation. IPS is publishing stories from writers like Emad Mekay (Egypt), Mohammed Omer (Gaza), Kaci Racelma (Algeria/Tunisia), Mike Elkin (Libya) and Suad Hamada (Bahrain) in many languages around the globe. In addition our broadcast news partner Al Jazeera, the authoritative source of information in the region, is bringing our work to its audience.

Many news providers have left Egypt and Tunisia, turning their attention just to the breaking crises. IPS, which has long been covering the fundamental fault lines in the Arabic world, is still there. IPS journalists have the continuing mission to cover the less spectacular but fundamental processes of development, the efforts to tackle the legacy of the old dictatorships, and uncover the levers of change. Read more »