BERNAMA Re-Elected To OANA's Executive Board...

From Yong Soo Heong

BERNAMA has been re-elected to the Executive Board of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) for another three-year term on the final day of the three-day, 15th OANA general assembly in Moscow today.

At the same time, BERNAMA was also appointed to a new three-member committee looking into ethics and training of journalists within OANA.

The other members of the committee drawn from OANA's Executive Board are the Australian Associated Press (AAP) and Kyodo News Agency of Japan.

BERNAMA general manager Datuk Yong Soo Heong said at the new 2013-2016 Executive Board meeting that it was timely that OANA should look into the upskilling of journalists within OANA member countries so that they could be a force to be reckoned with.

AAP Chief Executive Bruce Davidson said it was important to look into proper journalistic ethics and practices.

Earlier on, Thomas Kent, Deputy Managing Editor & Standards Editor of the Associated Press (AP) in New York told the general assembly that AP journalists would have to adhere to their organisation's guidelines on posting messages on the social media like Twitter.

ANTARA of Indonesia, an active member of OANA, was elected to the organisation's Technical Committee, which oversees various operational matters of the organisation founded in 1961 to strengthen cooperation between news agencies in the Asia Pacific.

The other members of the new Technical Committee are ITAR-TASS, Anadolu of Turkey, AAP, MEHR News Agency of Iran and Kazinform of Kazakhstan.

ITAR-TASS, the host of this year's general assembly has been elected the President of OANA for the next three years while Azertac of Azerbaijan will be the host of the next general assembly in 2016, after winning a ballot against Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

OANA members also voted to expand the number of Executive Board members to 13 from 11 previously. Three new Executive Board members were admitted -- Kyodo, Vietnam News Agency and Emirates News Agency (WAM).

The other Executive Board members for the new term are Xinhua of China, Yonhap of South Korea, Press Trust of India, Montsame of Mongolia, AAP of Australia, IRNA of Iran, Azertac of Azerbaijan, Anadolu of Turkey (immediate past president) and ITAR-TASS (new president).

-       BERNAMA