4th World Congress of News Agencies kicks off in Riyadh

Riyadh, November 19 (AZERTAC). The 4th World Congress of News Agencies has kicked off in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh.

Organized by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the event is attended by top-ranked Saudi officials, as well as heads of more than 70 world leading news agencies, including Turkey’s Anadolu, Russia’s ITAR-TASS, Egypt’s MENA, Argentina’s TELAM, French Agence France-Presse, UK’s Press Association, Australian Associated Press, Thomson Reuters, Southern Korea’s YONHAP, and news alliances such as OANA, EANA, FANA, IINA, and media corporations, including SKY News Arabia, Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, and BBC, and internet corporations such as MSN, Google and Yahoo.

Azerbaijan`s delegation at the event, themed "Re-inventing the News Agency in the 21st century", is led by Director General of Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency (AZERTAC) Aslan Aslanov.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Culture and Media Abdulaziz bin Mohieddin Khoja greeted the participants on behalf of King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. The Minister urged the media to breast up to the challenges of technology in contemporary information management in order to successfully continue their existence. He said the congress was timely in view of the challenges facing global media practice.

President of the 3rd World Congress of News Agencies, Director Manager of the Argentine Press Agency (Telam) Alberto Hugo Emaldi delivered a speech, in which he highlighted the importance of new media and the necessity to keep abreast with the new developments and changes in communication media to ensure the quick and accurate deliverance of news to recipients.

President of the Saudi Press Agency, Abdullah Bin Fahad Al-Hussein presented the agenda of the three-day congress. He noted the congress will feature five plenary sessions titled: “New market products and services”, “Social media and other news digital platforms”, “Arabic language broadcasters’ perspective on news agencies”, “Capitalizing on new opportunities”, “How can news agencies support newspapers’ future needs?”. The SPA President called event participants to constructive dialogue.