Joint opening ceremony of the 5th Congress of the World News Agencies and 16th General Assembly of OANA takes place in Baku
Joint opening ceremony of the 5th Congress of the World News Agencies and 16th General Assembly of the Asian and Pacific Ocean Countries News Agencies (OANA) took place, November 16, at the Heydar Aliyev Center, with joint organizational support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and AZERTAG.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the opening ceremony.
The Head of the State addressed the opening ceremony.
Then a video-address by UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova was shown.
UNESCO deputy Director General Getachew Engida delivered a speech at the ceremony.
Then a photograph was taken.
After a short break, the opening ceremony continued with speeches.
President of the World News Agencies Congress and Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Press Agency (SPA) Abdullah bin Fahd Al-Hussein, OANA President and Director General of Russia’s TASS Agency Sergey Mikhaylov, European News Agencies Alliance (EANA) and President of Sweden’s TT Agency Jonas Eriksson, President of the Arab News Agencies Federation (FANA), General Director of Kuwait’s News Agency (KUNA) Sheikh Mubarak Ibrahim al-Sabah, AZERTAG General Director Aslan Aslanov, President of the World News Agencies Congress Board (NACO), Chief Executive Director of the Great Britain’s Press Association Agency Clive Marshall, and editor of Australia’s PwG Entertainment and Media Company Megan Brownlow delivered a speech at the event.
The World News Agencies Baku Congress continues its work in sessions.
Since November 16, Azerbaijan will, during three days, host assemblies of influential international media organizations - the 5th Congress of the World News Agencies, the 16th General Assembly of the Asian and Pacific Ocean Countries News Agencies (OANA) and the 22nd Assembly of the Board of the heads of CIS Countries Information Agencies. Heads and representatives of some 190 news agencies defining main directions of the information policy from 80 countries of the world, international media experts, official representatives of UN and UNESCO, as well as employees of regional media organizations are participating in the events. News agencies from all the continents of the world are represented at the Congress. So, 77 representatives of 39 agencies from 31 Asian countries, 51 representatives of 30 agencies from 23 European countries, 25 representatives of 16 agencies from 16 African countries, 17 employees of 9 agencies from 7 countries of the American continent, and 4 representatives of Australia’s 3 agencies came to the Congress.
With the slogan “New Calls for News Agencies”, the sessions of the Congress will hold discussions on “Future of News Consumption”, “News Agencies – Calls and Possibilities of New Technologies and Social Media”, “Innovations of News Agencies”, “Trainings for Journalists on Multimedia’s Future” and “Protection of Journalists’ Mission: Freedom, Access, Safety and Conflict Zones”, and problems of journalism subjected to rapid transformation in the new millennium and forms of cooperation between news agencies and various platforms of the social media will be discussed.
In the sessions, presidents of international media organizations – the World Congress, OANA, EANA and FANA, heads of Associated Press, Reuters, Xinhua, Anadolu, TASS, France Press, Press Association, EFE, Yonhap, Kyodo, TT, SPA, BTA, AAP, İRNA, DPA, Notimex, ATPE and other influential information agencies, “Los-Angeles Times” newspaper, “Al Arabiya” TV Channel, and specialists of such leading media companies as “Tripod Advisors”, “News Corp”, “PwC”, “Axel Springer”, “Stibo Accelerator” will give a talk.
An album with some 600 best photos on the topics of “News”, “Holydays” and “Sport” will be presented to Congress participants. The photo-album has been printed in delicate design, supported by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Baku Media Centre.
