Azerbaijan hosts 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 CISHeads of News Agencies November 16.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is attending the opening ceremony at the Heydar Aliyev Center. 

Co-organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Azerbaijan’s state new agency AZERTAC, these events bring together heads and representatives of about 100 news agencies, which shape the global information policy, international media experts, UN – UNESCO official, and representatives of regional media organizations. Media experts, leaders and representatives of about 200 agencies from a total of nearly 80 countries have arrived in Azerbaijan. News agencies from all continents are represented in the congress. 77 representatives of 39 agencies from 31 countries in Asia, 50 representatives of 29 agencies from 22 countries in Europe, 25 representatives of 16 agencies from 16 countries in Africa, 17 representatives of 9 agencies from 7 countries in America, as well as 4 representatives of 3 agencies of Australia are attending the congress.

The slogan of the 5th News Agencies World Congress is “New Challenges for News Agencies”. The Congress features several sessions, including “The future of news consumption”, “News agencies – challenges and opportunities of new technologies and social media”, “News agency innovation”, “Training journalists for a multi-media future”, “Protecting the journalists’ mission: freedom, access, safety and conflict zones”. It also addresses problems facing journalism, which is now in experiencing rapid transformation, and forms of cooperation between news agencies and different social media platforms.

Speakers at 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, TT, SPA, BTA, AAP, IRNA, DPA, Notimex, ATPE and other leading news agencies, Los Angeles Times newspaper, Al Arabiya television channel, and experts from Tripod Advisors, News Corp, PwC, Axel Springer, Stibo Accelerator media companies.

The Congress will see presentation of a photo album featuring nearly 600 photographs by the participating agencies in “News”, “Festivities” and “Sport” categories. The photo album was published through partnership between the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Baku Media Center.

AZERTAC will sign agreements on news and experience exchange with Spanish EFE, Paraguayan IP and Bahraini BNA news agencies within the congress. Participants of the event will also elect members of the executive bodies of the Congress and adopt Declaration.

AZERTAC will take on a three-year presidency (2016-2019) of the Congress at the event.

Initiated by the Russian TASS news agency, the 1st News Agencies World Congress was held in Moscow on Sept. 24-25, 2004. The three other congresses took place in Spain, Argentina and Saudi Arabia. The main body of the Congress is the Council. At the 4th Congress, which was hosted by Riyadh in 2013, Associated Press, Reuters, Press Association, SPA, TASS, EFE, Kuna, AZERTAC and TELAM agencies as well as secretaries general of EANA, OANA and FANA were elected as members of the Council. The Baku Congress will elect new members of the Council.

APA