Azerbaijani news agency to preside over 2 organizations

By Ruslan Rehimov

BAKU, Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan’s state news agency AzerTac will take over the presidency of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and of the World Congress of News Agencies (NAWC) for three years.

The opening ceremony of the meetings, the 16th general assembly of the OANA and the fifth congress of the NAWC, will be held at the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center in Azerbaijan's capital Baku on Nov.16.

"We are sure that Anadolu Agency and AzerTac, two friendly agencies, will achieve greater success by cooperating during our presidency of the World Congress of News Agencies in 2016-2019." Aslan Aslanov, director general of the AzerTac told Anadolu Agency on Saturday.

The two events will bring together more than 200 heads and representatives of over 100 reputable news agencies, speakers specialized in media, and officials from the UN and UNESCO.

In the World Congress of News Agencies, they will discuss hot topics such as the opportunities of the new technologies and social media, innovation of the news agencies and journalism training for the future of the multimedia.

At the events, executives of the news agencies such as Associated Press, Reuters, Anadolu Agency, TASS, Xinhua will give speeches.

OANA was run by Russian news agency TASS for the 2013–2016 period. Turkey's Anadolu Agency held the presidency between 2010-2013

Established in 1961 under a UNESCO initiative, OANA is comprised of 44 Asia-Pacific news agencies from 35 countries.

The NAWC was established in 2004 in Moscow. This year Azerbaijan will take over the presidency from Saudi Arabia.