Asia Pacific news agencies discuss media balancing

Representatives from Asia-Pacific news agencies are meeting in Tehran, Iran, to discuss measures to boost global media balancing in the coming time.
Representatives from Asia-Pacific newsagencies are meeting in Tehran, Iran, to discuss measures to boostglobal media balancing in the coming time.

Underthe theme of “A quest for global media balancing”, the 31 st ExecutiveBoard Meeting (EBM) and the 25 th Editorial-Technical Group Meeting(ETGM) of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) aretaking place from November 13-17.

The meetings aim to assess achievements and the implementation ofactivities put forth at the 13 th OANA General Assembly held in Jakarta, Indonesia, in December 2007 as well as approve the minutes of the 30th EBM in Baku, Azerbaijan, in September 2008.

Speaking at the event, the Vietnam News Agency representative said “therapid development of information technology is changing the way ourcustomers assess information. Therefore, we must quickly move towardsmulti-media information to maintain the existence of news agencies.”

Participants stressed that the strong development of the informationtechnology as well as huge and diversified flows of information on theglobe not only create opportunities and challenges for news agenciesbut also bring dishonest, biased and untrue information to readers.

In that context, the role of regional news agencies becomes moreimportant and seeking a global media balancing will be an essentialtask of the OANA in the coming time, they said.

According to OANA President Ahmad Mukhlis Yusuf, reaching a globalmedia balancing is the main reason for the establishment and existenceof the 50-year-old organisation.

In the coming time, OANA members will work to build up theircompetitive edges by providing truthful information, diversifying theirinformation products in order to serve different needs of customers aswell as investing wisely in new types of information through setting upstrategic alliances in the information sector, he said.

The 14 th OANA General Assembly and the 32 nd EBM are scheduled to take place in Turkey in 2010./.

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