'Somalia must be better addressed by media'

By Cigdem Alyanak

ISTANBUL

Somalia must be better addressed by media representatives, said a senior official of Turkey’s leading news agency on Sunday.

"We need to better address Somalia which has stood up on its feet again," said Metin Mutanoglu, deputy director general and editor-in-chief of Anadolu Agency.

Speaking at the first annual East African Development Forum in Istanbul, Mutanoglu focused on the role of media in rebuilding nations.

The forum was organized by the East Africa Association for Development and Research under the theme "Turkish-Somali partnership: Stepping forward".

He said that Somalia has dozens of television channels, newspapers, radio stations and web portals but they are enough to tell the world about the nation.

Mutanoglu expressed his happiness on the "rebirth" of Somalia, noting that the country is shifting from a static economy to a self-developing one.

"The contribution of Turkey in this [development] makes us happy," he said.

Based on his research on how Somalia was represented in Turkish media, he said the most highlighted news were about explosions, armed conflicts and Al-Shabaab's terror attacks, as well as Turkey's support to Somalia.

Stating that Turkey runs its largest foreign military training base in Somalia, Mutanoglu said that the benefits of this military base will be seen much better in the coming years.

He noted that the creation of a strong Somali army will give the country the ability to eliminate threats on its own.

Turkey has been the biggest supporter of Somalia for years and has its biggest embassy in Africa in Mogadishu.

Mutanoglu also provided brief information about Anadolu Agency underlining that it is the biggest news source of Turkey.

Founded in 1920, Anadolu Agency is a well-established global news agency with operations in most major regions around the globe, including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Asia-Pacific, and serves subscribers in more than 100 countries.

For its subscribers, the agency produces news stories in 13 languages: Turkish, English, Arabic, BHS (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian), Russian, Kurmanji, Sorani, Persian, French, Albanian, Macedonian, Indonesian, and Spanish.