AP: Baku congress allows sharing ideas to solve problems

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 17

By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:

The 5th News Agencies World Congress in Baku makes it possible to share ideas for solving the problems of news agencies, Ted Anthony, Asia-Pacific news director for the news cooperative at the Associated Press, told Trend.

Mass media outlets are changing very fast, and it is very important that all who have the smallest amount of information gather together and share their knowledge to be able to affect the world community, he said.

Anthony went on to add that modern news agencies are mostly faced by two types of problems - journalistic and business ones.

The main journalistic problem is that reporters increasingly face various dangers, it becomes more difficult to obtain information, as there are those who try to stop them, he noted.

The main business problem is that many readers are accustomed to getting news for free, but one shouldn’t forget that news agencies need funds for development, and that’s why it’s necessary to work together to solve these problems, Anthony said.

Azerbaijan is hosting the 5th News Agencies World Congress, the 16th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and the 22nd Session of the Council of CIS Heads of News Agencies.

Azerbaijan is represented in the events by Trend and AzerTAc news agencies.

Co-organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Azerbaijan’s state news agency AzerTAc, these events bring together heads and officials of about 100 news agencies, international media experts, and officials from UNESCO and regional media organizations.

Speakers in the sessions include presidents of the News Agencies World Congress, OANA, EANA, FANA, managers of Associated Press, Reuters, Xinhua, Anadolu Agency, TASS, Agence France-Press, Press Association, EFE, Yonhap, Kyodo News, TT, SPA, BTA, AAP, IRNA, DPA, Notimex, ATPE and other leading news agencies, Los Angeles Times newspaper, Al Arabiya TV channel, and experts from Tripod Advisors, News Corp, PwC, Axel Springer and Stibo Accelerator media companies.

Initiated by the Russian news agency TASS, the 1st News Agencies World Congress was held in Moscow on Sept. 24-25, 2004.