Minister of Information Mr. Ziad al-Makary visited on Friday afternoon the UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office in Beirut, where he met with the Director of the Office Ms. Costanza Farina and Senior Program Specialists. The discussions focused on the main strategic Office interventions carried out – like Libeirut in response to the August 2020 Beirut blast- and future initiatives in the various fields of education, culture, communication and sciences. The regional programs UNESCO currently implements were also highlighted, like greening education and youth targeted activities. ‘We have discussed new venues of cooperation between UNESCO and the Ministry of Information, expressed al-Makary, especially concerning the digitization and preservation of the archives of official media institutions such as the National News Agency, Radio Lebanon, the Directorate of Lebanese Studies and Publications, Tele-Liban, as well as the urgent need to preserve intellectual property rights of media institutions.’ The Minister of Information stressed on the need to support official media institutions and to combat misinformation, in light of the challenging conditions the country is going through. He also announced the official launch related to Beirut as the Capital of Arab Media, during the month of May. Al-Makary highlighted the importance of the capacity development events organized by the UNESCO Regional Office for journalists and media students so that they keep abreast of the latest technologies and media programs, combat false and misleading news and avoid hate speech. Al Makary stressed on the role of media to reinforce UNESCO’s efforts in advocacy and awareness. He welcomed cooperation with the education, science, and culture sectors as to inform the wider public about the mission and the results of those programs. The Director of the UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office, Ms. Costanza Farina, thanked the Minister for the continuous robust partnership, which resulted recently in the progress achieved on the enhanced media law to be presented now for Parliament’s deliberations. This initiative was informed by UNESCO international standards and good practices and witnessed a high degree of participation and consultations in Lebanon from civil society, media professionals, academia, jurists, media owners and syndicates.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon