POLITICS
Chaired by AZERTAC 44th OANA Executive Board Meeting gets underway in Hanoi VIDEO
Hanoi, April 19, Elshan Shahbalayev, AZERTAC
Chaired by AZERTAC and organized by Vietnam’s VNA news agency, the 44th Executive Board meeting of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) has kicked off in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Attending the event, Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam Vu Duc Dam, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, and members of delegations viewed the exhibition showcasing the photos by the OANA member agencies.
AZERTAC’s photos aroused great interest among the official guests.
Vietnam’s state anthem was played, a promotional video about the country was screened at the opening ceremony.
Addressing the event, VNA's Director General Nguyen Duc Loi expressed his confidence that holding the 44th OANA Executive Board Meeting in Hanoi will contribute to the development of the organization. He thanked the OANA chairing agency-AZERTAC for supporting the organization of the meeting.
In his remarks, Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam Vu Duc Dam pointed out the challenges the modern media faces in the era of the development of information technologies. He noted that only the media based on journalistic values will be able to skillfully cope with these challenges. Emphasizing the necessity of OANA’s development, the deputy prime minister hailed the importance of the efforts by the organization’s President Aslan Aslanov and AZERTAC as a chair agency in this regard.
OANA President, AZERTAC Chairman of the Board Aslan Aslanov welcomed the event participants, and thanked the Vietnamese government, deputy prime minister, and VNA agency for the excellent organization of the meeting.
“At this time the mutual exchange of experience among the media outlets is of crucial importance. And the way leading to the mutual cooperation is through meeting modern requirements and demonstrating high levels of professionalism. AZERTAC news agency, as a chair of the News Agencies World Congress (NAWC) and OANA spares no efforts to contribute to further improvement of the organization’s activity. Therefore, we always keep under constant focus three factors such as effective cooperation mechanisms, innovations and exchange of experience.
It is necessary to adapt to modern innovations. At the same time it is our professional duty to maintain good traditions of journalism.
At a time when online media and social networks are expanding, a dangerous trend such as fake news is strengthening we have to make regular efforts, trying to overcome these tests together in order to maintain the accuracy, objectivity and impartiality of news.
OANA, which involves the major news agencies of the region, can become a powerful platform for responding to these challenges. To this end, it is necessary to apply innovations without delay, further modernize the organization and create more flexible information exchange mechanisms,” Aslan Aslanov said.
The 44th OANA Executive Board Meeting in Hanoi will run till April 20.
The event brings together heads and representatives of Turkish Anadolu, Russian TASS, Australian AAP, South Korean Yonhap, UAE’s WAM, Chinese Xinhua, Indonesian Antara, Malaysian Bernama, Iranian Irna, Japanese Kyodo, and other agencies.
The meeting which discusses the current issues of OANA, including the challenges facing media, fight against the fake news, fact-checking, and the problems facing the agencies will also announce the winners of the organization’s "Excellence Award" contest.