Media office aims to tell positive tale of Sharjah

Sharjah Media Office will promote 'positive' news about the emirate in the local and international press.

A media office that will promote "positive" news about Sharjah is to open next month.

The Sharjah Media Office, part of the Sharjah Media Corporation (SMC), aims to be a conduit between local government departments and the media.

"We will be the voice of several departments, especially on main issues concerning the public," said Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, the chairman of SMC.

"Its purpose is to talk about Sharjah, to give the real picture about what is going on in Sharjah, the works that Sharjah Government is doing, the news about His Highness."

Sheikh Sultan said the office would field enquiries from local and international journalists and be "similar" in nature to the Dubai Media Office. The centre would focus on "talking about Sharjah in a positive way".

"Of course we will focus on the positive news. I hope we don't have a lot of negative news but if we do I think the media centre will be the right entity to at least talk about it, or make the picture clearer for people to understand what's going on."

Osama Samra, the director of the Sharjah Media Centre, said there would also be a social space for journalists to visit and use the internet. Mr Samra likened it to "the media office in Dubai and the Dubai Press Club merged into one."

Sheikh Sultan said the establishment of the centre was not a response to negative or incorrect media reports about the emirate.

"I don't think it's a problem with the wrong information. I think it's a problem of how to provide the information … we have a lot of departments here that do a fantastic job of providing services but they never speak about it," he said.

"Instead of having different departments talk about Sharjah in their own way, we incorporated everything under one umbrella … you need one place where all the information flows through."