MOSCOW, September 22 (RIA Novosti) - International information agency Rossiya Segodnya unveiled a new product on Monday – a newswire in Arabic known as RIA Novosti Arabic.
"This is our fourth product. As you know, we have wires in Russian, English, Spanish, and a launch of a wire in Chinese is planned for the nearest future," Rossiya Segodnya Deputy Editor-in-Chief Dmitry Gornostaev said at the launch of the agency's Arabic service.
He explained that leading up till November, the new newswire would operate for 13 hours a day, with a subsequent transition to a nonstop news release cycle. "Now we are producing about 120 reports a day, by the time of transition to the 24/7 regime in November, we will reach 300 news reports. From the new year, as the Arabic editorship continues to expand, we plan to raise the bar further," Gornostaev added.
He explained that the main source of news for the new wire would be "the information from its own correspondents … We make our own original products," Gornostaev stated.
Over 300 exclusive messages in Arabic on Russia, CIS and Baltic countries, as well as information obtained from the field by the agency's reporters will be made available to subscribers through the agency's online news terminal or by email. RIA Novosti Arabic will be operated from Moscow and Cairo, as most of the news from correspondents from Arab countries is being written in the Egyptian capital. News from Russia, CIS and other countries will come from Moscow.
"After a long and careful evaluation, we concluded that Cairo is more suitable for the production of a newswire. The situation in recent years pushed us to opt for Cairo. Moreover, we have kept a bureau in the United Arab Emirates," Gornostaev said, explaining the choice of Cairo as a second correspondent bureau.
Head of the Rossiya Segodnya's Arabic information service Rima Mayta promised that the new product will be filled with different types of media, including infographics. "As we will develop, we will try to diversify the information in accordance with our capabilities," she said, responding to a question about plans for the new product.
Arabic-speaking representatives of the diplomatic corps in Moscow welcomed the new newswire. "With great satisfaction we note the efforts that you made to start the wire in Arabic. We appreciate the objective approach with which you cover events in the Arab world. Wish you success and will support you," the Ambassador of Palestine in the Russian Federation Fayed Mustafa said during the presentation.
"We would like to provide all possible assistance … The Russian point of view – it is now the most objective, and this is particularly important in the conditions of an information war that swept the Arab world, and not only because even the Russian media are not united, and many, in pursuit of a sensation neglect objectivity," Minister Counselor of the Iraqi Embassy in Moscow Ghazi Al-Topi said. He added that the Arab media have a great interest to information from Russia.
