Our Correspondent
DUBAI
Emirates News Agency (WAM), the official news agency of the United Arab Emirates, has added news in five more languages – Malayalam, Sinhala, Indonesian, Bengali and Pashto – to offer its coverage to nearly 551 million users of these languages. The agency already had 13 languages until this expansion on May 31. With this, WAM hopes to develop its news services, as envisioned by the National Media Council, to strengthen the UAE’s media sector.
The addition is designed to promote the UAE’s distinguished global position as an international model of coexistence between different nationalities and religions, through wider media coverage to the entire world.
HE Dr. Sultan bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State and Chairman of the NMC, said the new languages will support cultural diversity and reinforce the UAE’s cultural pluralism. “The addition of these new languages is in line with our vision and ambition to develop the UAE’s media sector and strengthen its regional and international position, in light of the changes witnessed by the global media sector. Therefore, we aim, by offering news services in 18 languages, to create new communication channels to reach out to more people around the world, reflecting our values and national interests.”
He said, “Protecting knowledge and fighting false news, which is why enlarging the scope of WAM’s news services will support official trusted sources of news characterised by accuracy and credibility.”
“We are continuing to improve our services, under the framework of our strategic plans to create new channels and tools to reach out to larger segments of the public, providing top-quality content while reinforcing the stature of the UAE, which has become an influential regional and international player,” he said.
