Jeddah, Mar. 17 (BNA): The Union of OIC News Agencies (UNA) has launched an integrated digital media ecosystem comprising a range of modern technological projects and platforms, in a step aimed at strengthening digital transformation in media work, enhancing the efficiency of news content production, and combating media disinformation, in line with the requirements of the digital era and reinforcing the presence of media across the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Mohammed bin Abdulrabbo Al Yami, UNA Director General, said the ecosystem comes in implementation of the resolution issued by the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers during its recent meeting in Istanbul on 21–22 June 2025, which called on the Union to intensify its activities in the domains of digital transformation and artificial intelligence, update the digital platforms of the Union and its member agencies, and develop the professional capacities of media professionals in member states in these areas.

Al Yami affirmed that the ecosystem also comes within the framework of the Union’s vision to develop joint media work among member news agencies through interconnected digital projects reflecting an institutional transition towards modern media based on innovation and smart technologies, providing an integrated environment that supports news production, exchange and dissemination on a global scale. He noted that at the forefront of these projects is UNA’s new website, which represents the unified digital interface for media across OIC countries, bringing together news from member states, agencies and partners on an advanced platform that provides an easy and modern user experience and offers reliable content supporting the credibility of media work.

He indicated that the website features a number of advanced technical capabilities, most notably instant neural text translation into 51 languages, audio reading support for news, a media coverage management system, an advanced search engine and full compatibility with various devices.

Al Yami also revealed the launch of "UNA Chatbot", an intelligent assistant based on artificial intelligence technologies designed to provide instant and accurate answers regarding the Union’s activities and services around the clock.

According to Al Yami, the project aims to enhance communication with the public and provide information from reliable sources, with multilingual support, understanding of different dialects and direct integration with other Union platforms, in addition to the "UNA Teams" platform, which represents a digital workspace for managing correspondence, archiving and organising tasks within the Union, contributing to improving institutional efficiency, accelerating decision-making and enhancing transparency in managing administrative operations.

Within the framework of developing professional capacities, Al Yami stated that the Union launched the International Training Institutes Network, a global platform bringing together training institutes, trainers, trainees and companies within a unified professional network that offers accredited training programmes and broad opportunities for cooperation and development of training content, with support for in-person and digital training. He noted that the Union crowned its technological media initiatives with the "Smart Editor", a journalistic tool based on artificial intelligence trained on thousands of official news reports, capable of producing professional media content aligned with the style of news agencies, accelerating editing processes, reducing errors and directing journalistic efforts towards verification and in-depth analysis.

Al Yami said that among the important projects is also the publishing platform on the UNA website, which allows news agencies and partners to publish their news directly through a secure and rapid protocol, providing wide international dissemination of media content through instant translation into dozens of languages. The Union has also launched the Member States Platform, which serves as an integrated services gateway linking the Union with news agencies across member states and providing media and organisational services including news exchange, training, management of international media coverage, media delegations and professional development programmes.

In the context of combating media disinformation, he explained that the Union launched the specialised UNA Fact Check platform for verifying news, which relies on advanced linguistic analysis technologies covering more than 120 languages and enables the analysis of thousands of sources at high speed to produce reliable results suitable for publication. The projects also include the "PalestiFact (Palestine News Fact-Check)" platform, a specialised media tool aimed at verifying news related to the Palestinian issue and exposing misleading narratives through analysing thousands of media materials and producing multilingual professional reports based on reliable sources.

He noted that the ecosystem also includes the Media Membership Platform, which provides a comprehensive programme serving journalists and media institutions around the world through multi-level memberships offering opportunities for training, media coverage and participation in international events, in addition to instantly verifiable digital membership cards. The Union has also implemented the News Processor project, an intelligent system designed to process news issued by various entities and formulate it in a journalistic style consistent with the publishing policies adopted by news agencies, contributing to standardising editorial style and improving content quality.

In the field of media publishing and distribution, Al Yami stated that the Union introduced a dedicated publishing and distribution system enabling the sending of news and press releases to thousands of media entities and institutions through a professional mass-distribution system that supports tracking, archiving and scheduled publishing. The Union concluded its digital projects ecosystem with the launch of the University Graduates Training Platform, which aims to automate student training programmes and link universities and training institutions with training providers, contributing to developing the professional skills of graduates and organising the training process electronically between the trainee, the training entity and the academic supervisor.

Al Yami affirmed that these digital initiatives reflect the vision of the Union of OIC News Agencies to build a modern media ecosystem based on innovation and smart technologies, supporting cooperation among media institutions across member states and strengthening the role of professional media in addressing digital challenges, combating disinformation and promoting reliable information at the international level.

A.S, S.E