President Ilham Aliyev inaugurates joint ceremony of News Agencies World Congress

BAKU (Azerbaijan) Nov 16 (APP): Joint opening ceremony of the 5th News Agencies World Congress and the 16th General Assembly of Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation was inaugurated by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev here Wednesday.
Media organizations from across the world are attending the 5th News Agencies World Congress, the 16th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies and the 22nd meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of News Agencies.
Delegates from 80 countries are partcipating in the event.
The Congress has brought together 96 news agencies from different countries. Some 77 delegates from 39 news agencies of 31 Asian countries, 51 delegates from 30 agencies of 23 European countries, 25 delegates from 16 agencies of African countries, 17 delegates from 9 news agencies from USA, and 4 delegates from 3 news agencies representing Australia are attending the event.
The theme of the 5th News Agencies World Congress is “New Challenges for News Agencies”. The Congress features several sessions, including “The future of news consumption”, “News agencies – challenges and opportunities of new technologies and social media”, “News agency innovation”, “Training journalists for a multi-media future”, “Protecting the journalists’ mission: freedom, access, safety and conflict zones.”
It would address problems facing journalism, which is now experiencing rapid transformation, and forms of cooperation between news agencies and different social media platforms.
Speakers at the Wednesday sessions included presidents OANA, EANA, FANA and other leading news agencies. Participants of the event will also elect members of the executive bodies of the Congress and adopt Declaration. AZERTAC – news agency of Azerbaijan will take over a three-year presidency (2016-19) of the Congress at the event.
Initiated by the Russian TASS news agency, the 1st News Agencies World Congress was held in Moscow on September 24-25, 2004. The three other congresses took place in Spain, Argentina and Saudi Arabia.
At the 4th Congress, which was hosted by Riyadh in 2013, Associated Press, Reuters, Press Association, SPA, TASS, EFE, Kuna, AZERTAC and TELAM agencies as well as secretaries general of EANA, OANA and FANA were elected as members of the Council. The Baku Congress will elect new members of the Council.
An initiative of UNESCO, the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies was founded in 1961 with the aim of expanding news exchange among regional news agencies. OANA‘s members include 44 news agencies from 35 countries. Having joined OANA in 2004, AZERTAC has been elected a member of its Executive Board for three times. At the 15th General Assembly held in Moscow in 2013, AZERTAC was elected – by secret ballot – as president of the organization for 2016-19.
The agenda of the 22nd session of the Council of CIS Heads of News Agencies encompasses a wide range of issues, including review of the organization‘s activities in 2016, implementation of joint projects, and expansion of news exchange.