Baku, SANA – The 5th News Agencies World Congress and 16th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) on Thursday continued activities for the second day at the Azeri capital of Baku with the participation of the Syrian Arab News Agency “SANA” represented by its Director General Ahmed Dawa.
Speaking at the sessions of the Congress held under the title “New Challenges Facing News Agencies” OANA Director and Director General of Russia’s Itar-Tass News Agency Sergei Mikhailov affirmed that OANA has a significant existence in the domain of the international media and that it is considered a suitable platform for exchanging experiences.
Mikhailov added that OANA is keen on allowing more news agencies to join it even if they are not from the continent which it represents.
Director General of the official news agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan Aslan Aslanov indicated that the advanced and renewable media technology requires precisely keeping up with it by the journalists.
Aslanov called upon the journalists working at the news agencies to keep up with the modern technologies with the aim of delivering the media message at the required speed and with a high professionalism.
Head of the Council of the News Agencies World Congress and Chief Executive of the British Press Association Group Clive Marshall said that the Congress is a fruitful chance to discuss important issues that are taking place in the domain of information and media.
Marshall indicated that the news agencies are facing many difficulties due to the rapid progress of the technology and the social networking websites.
The three-day Conference discusses various issues such as the future of news consumption and news agencies, innovation, training journalists to keep up with multimedia technology, protecting journalists, and freedom of access to information.
The Conference will also discuss reports by news agencies and will produce a photo album containing around 600 photos submitted by the participating agencies, which are represented by 77 journalists from 39 Asian agencies, 51 from 30 European agencies, 25 from 16 African agencies, 17 from 9 American agencies, and 4 from 3 Australian agencies.
The Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) was formed in 1961 by an initiative by the UNESCO with the aim of exchanging information among the news agencies of its members.
It is an association of news agencies from UNESCO member states in the Asia-Pacific region. It includes 43 news agencies from 35 countries in its membership, and the Syrian Arab News Agency is considered one of its founding members.
R.J/Ghossoun