July 31, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 27, 1429

COLOMBO, July 30: A proposal to create a common South Asian news agency was floated on Wednesday at the forth Saarc media forum organised parallel to the 15th Summit of the regional organisation.

“It would be logical at this juncture to create a common South Asian news agency. Let us write our stories ourselves”, Minister of Information and Media Anura Priyadarshana Yaapa said lamenting the popularity of Western news agencies as credible source of information reporting happenings in South Asian region. He was addressing the inaugural session of Saarc media forum organised by South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA).

About 100 journalists from the eight Saarc nations, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have converged here at the two-day summit to discuss the state of press freedom and ponder on ways to strengthen forums and institutions to guarantee free access to information to people of the region.

The theme of the gathering this year is ‘Freedom of media in conflict situations’. The media forum is held annually along with the Saarc Heads of State Summit.

It was reported that since the last meeting in 2007, journalists and media outlets have come under greater pressure with a rising wave of intolerance in some sub-regions directed against moderate sections and independent journalists.—AS