NOURNEWS - "Mohammad Khodadi" in a meeting with the Afghan Media Board headed by Mohammad Rasoul Bavari, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information, stressed the need to deepen cultural and media relations and cooperation between the two countries: The ongoing relations between the people of Iran and Afghanistan have always been based on kindness, courtesy, cooperation, empathy and brotherhood, and have always been supportive and protective of each other.
In this regard, referring to the hosting of Iranians by their Afghan brothers and sisters, he added: "The lives of millions of Afghans in Iran and the provision of free services like Iranian citizens confirm the fraternal view of Iranians towards their longtime neighbors."
The Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance continued by pointing out that today's world is practically facing the hegemony of the media: "By exaggerating the problems of the Muslim countries in the region, the Westerners are practically seeking their own interests; For years, they have been trying to portray developing countries, especially Muslims, as war-torn and underdeveloped people who are constantly facing cultural and social crises."
He stated that the main function of some media outlets, which are run with the money of some countries in the region, is to create divisions and misunderstandings among the people of the region, as he continued: "Certainly, the friendship between Iran and Afghanistan is against the interests of many Western countries and sometimes in the Middle East, and stability and peace in our relations are not in their interest because they have seen their power to create a sense of insecurity in the region."
The Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance criticized the activities of the third media outlet for creating discord between the people of Iran and Afghanistan and said: "By falsifying news, margins, misinterpreting the presentation of a contradictory narration of any incident, this current tries to turn the friendly atmosphere between the people of the two countries into confrontation, misunderstanding and doubt, which, of course, the people of the two countries will not allow such tricks to take place due to the depth of their historical-religious relations."
Khodadi pointed out that the feeling of insecurity is worse than insecurity, saying: "The Western media is trying to represent the situation in the countries of the region in such a way that these countries are always in turmoil and insecurity, and their people have nothing to do with culture, development and progress. Conversely, they present themselves as a symbol of democracy, human rights, and the fight against racial discrimination, and the conditions of the protests in the West have now exposed this historic deception."
He called the media flow, which is started with the investment of third countries, one of the realities of today's world and pointed to the goals and missions of the media networks of third countries in purposeful coverage, creating chaos and disrupting relations between people, he implied: "There is no reason for a media outlet to be set up in another country at the expense of a third country and produce news for the people of another geography, other than to achieve the interests and goals of the financial provider."
He added: "The stability and security, development and preservation of Afghanistan's territorial integrity has always been emphasized by Iran, and our media have always had and will continue to have comprehensive support for the Afghan government's grand policies."
Referring to the cultural, historical, religious and linguistic commonalities between the two countries, Khodadi said he was ready to provide all the necessary conditions for the presence of Afghan media activists in Iran and the comprehensive development of media cooperation between the two sides.
He also mentioned the increase in support and the development of media understandings with Afghanistan as one of the functions of the press deputy of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and added: "We are ready to help and increase interactions in various media fields, including the transfer of experiences through newspaper courses and workshops in accordance with the developments of the day."
Mohammad Rasool Bavari, Afghanistan's Deputy Minister of Culture and Information, also described the atmosphere in the country's media: "The media in Afghanistan operate in both governmental and non-governmental forms; State-run media are directly directed and directed by the Ministry of Information and Culture, and non-governmental media outlets operating under the country's current laws and regulations have restrictions and competencies, and their activities are governed by governance standards."
Referring to the Afghan government's commitment to comprehensive support for macro-policies and deepening cultural-media relations with Iran, he said: "We have not allowed our media to act against the interests of the two countries in any way, because what is formed in the minds of the people is usually made and paid for by the media."
The Deputy Minister of Information and Culture of Afghanistan considered it necessary to avoid extremism in news approaches and stated: "According to the principles of journalism, we should not distort the facts and crises, but we should also try to present the solutions and show the positive aspects of the issues while representing the facts. We should try to reduce the ground for similar crises in the reporting of events and crises. He expressed his country's readiness for comprehensive media cooperation with Iran and stressed the development and facilitation of the exchange of journalists between the two countries."
Bavari also referred to the memorandum of cooperation between the media, which is to be signed soon in Kabul and between the deputy ministers of culture of the two countries: "In this memorandum, we have added a clause according to which Iran will have a cultural center in Herat and we also want to set up an Afghan cultural center in Mashhad."
According to the report, Gran Hiwad, spokesman and director general of media affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Shafiq Shargh, cultural attaché of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Tehran, and Fatemeh Taleghani, First Secretary of the Afghan Embassy in Iran, among the companions of the Deputy Minister of Culture and Information of Afghanistan were in this meeting.
The signing of memorandums of understanding on media cooperation, the exchange of media delegations and the holding of training courses in journalism were among the points mentioned by the members of the Afghan media delegation. While emphasizing the deepening of cultural relations and the representation of friendship and intimacy between the people of Iran and Afghanistan in the media of the two countries, the instructor of this meeting was raised.
NOURNEWS