Azerbaijan`s first national news agency AzerTAc turns 94
Baku, March 1 (AZERTAC). Founded by the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic on March 1, 1920, AZERTAC has gone through a difficult and glorious path. The agency was a branch of the TASS agency after the fall of the Democratic Republic. Throughout its history the agency has had its name changed seven times, and returned its historical name only in 1991 when Azerbaijan restored its independence.
Working on a round-the-clock basis, AZERTAC is producing news in six languages, including in Azerbaijani, English, Russian, French, German and Arabic, covering socio-political, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, healthcare, sport, environmental and other fields. The agency is producing more than 15,000 news items, more than 50,000 photos, more than 200 videos and more than 20 infographics on a monthly basis.
In 2004, AZERTAC became a member of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), which groups the world`s leading news agencies. The agency is the largest contributor of news items to OANA`s website.
In 2008, the agency joined the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA). AZERTAC is one of the founders of the Association of the National News Agencies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (ANIA), the Union of the Turkic Speaking News Agencies (TKA) and the Black Sea Association of National News Agencies (BSANNA).
In 2011-2013, AZERTAC chaired the Black Sea Association of National News Agencies. It currently presides over the Union of the Turkic Speaking News Agencies.
AZERTAC has signed agreements with national news agencies from over 30 countries and successfully cooperates with them. The agency also works to ink similar agreements with several more news agencies.
AZERTAC has hosted the 30th OANA Board Meeting entitled “News for everybody in globalizing world” in September 2008. Heads and high-ranking representatives from over 20 countries came together in Azerbaijan for the first time.
AZERTAC Director General became OANA`s Vice-President and was re-elected as an Executive Board member for the third time in a row at the 15th OANA General Assembly held in Moscow in September, 2013.
The organization also decided to hold its next General Assembly in Baku, which meant that AZERTAC would be holding OANA`s presidency in 2016-2019.
AZERTAC`s another success came when heads of more than 70 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 came together in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, for the 4th News Agencies World Congress. The Riyadh meeting decided that the next Congress would take place in Azerbaijan in 2016, which means the agency would chair the News Agencies World Congress in 2016-2019.
AZERTAC has conducted important structural reforms, and established multimedia and video and social network departments, as well as children`s portal.
The agency has its accounts in Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram in English and French languages.
The text, video, photo items enabled the agency to bring its total reach on the social networks up to 100,000. SocialBakers social media analytics platform rated AZERTAC`s Facebook page as the fastest growing one.
The agency is expanding its foreign bureaus network and international cooperation. AZERTAC now has bureaus in 21 countries, which are the USA, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, China, Japan, Sweden, Romania, Latvia, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Its offices in Azerbaijan cover all regions of the country.
AZERTAC faces a promising future. A new state-of-the-art building is now being constructed for the agency, which will appear in a special design.
AZERTAC will soon move to the new building to move more confidently towards new goals.
Other news in this section
