Saarc members urged to liberalise visa regime for journalists

The two-day conference, which ended here Friday evening, also proposed elimination of tariff curbs on media products among member-countries.

The meeting discussed a draft given by Bangladesh on the setting up of a Saarc Media Development Fund and recommended that an experts' group be set up to work out details of the project.

It sought the inclusion of some more points in the 1998 Plan of Action adopted by Saarc countries on information and media. Among these are dedicated space in newspapers and periodicals for Saarc developmental news regularly, Saarc media training institute for human resource development and exchange of information between news agencies of the member countries.

The conference stressed the need for preservation and development of a free media and the right to health dissent within the overall orbit of free speech.

Development of the media could be considered as a tool of fostering cooperation among Saarc countries towards peace, economic development and poverty alleviation, it said.

The meeting was of the unanimous view that there should be greater interaction among between Saarc conference of Editors and working journalists and groups of South Asian journalists working on Track II to prepare a cohesive strategy for the development of the media in the region.