Baku hosts opening ceremony of 5th News Agencies World Congress

Baku. 16 November. REPORT.AZ/ Baku today plays host to the joint opening ceremony of the 5th News Agencies World Congress and Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) General Assembly. 

Report informs, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is attending the ceremony. 

Co-organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and 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.

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