The Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management will oversee the project. Chair Omar Abdul Rahman said the Smart News Network (SNN) would take text, photographs and video from member news organisations to counter what he called a "sometimes malicious interpretation of developing-world events".
"It is just another source of news," he told Reuters in an interview in Uganda, adding that the service would be independent of governments.
"There is always a feeling in the developing economies that news emanating from your country through the usual wire services gets the emphasis and the interpretation wrong."
The web address and launch date are still pending, but the site will be hosted by Malaysian news site Bernama.com.
Participants also include Malaysian papers The New Straits Times, The Star and Utusan Malaysia, the Mozambique News Agency and newspapers Namibia Today, The Seychelles Nation, The Bua News (South Africa), Uganda's New Vision, The Herald in Zimbabwe and Botswana's Daily News.
A former science adviser to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Abdul Rahman said Mahathir had been reported incorrectly on many occasions.
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