OANA to counter fake news, says TASS

The Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) has been founded to better the performance of the regional news agencies and tries to counter the one-way media current in the world, said the first deputy director general of TASS.

'OANA has a rich history and prominent agencies from Asia and Oceania are present in it,' said Mikhail Solomonovich Gusman in an interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) in Moscow.

On the verge of travelling to Tehran to participate in the OANA executive board meeting on Monday, Gusman invited IRNA employees in Moscow to his office and talked to them about OANA's present situation and future plans and obsessions.

He said the OANA meeting is a good chance for the news agencies to exchange experiences and for their presidents to meet to facilitate bilateral and multilateral ties. Referring to the fact that some countries are very active and some inactive in the media and news, Gusman said OANA can illustrate a more real image of the state members.

'It is a fact that Western countries are better equipped and have a richer history in media work and are better organized.

“We established OANA to cooperate to become better to counter the one-way media current,' he said in the interview published on the OANA website.

Gusman said the main goal of mass media is to strengthen peace in the world and IRNA and TASS have the same goal.

'Our main goal is not to let the extremist influence our audience; our news agencies should not follow negative trends; they should reinforce peace in the world.'

Saying that he is pessimistic about social media, Gusman added that although social media are novel and have millions of members, they cannot be considered as professional news sources.

'Unfortunately, social media provide the grounds for the news to be misused and fake news to go viral,' he said.

'We can accept the social media as a new phenomenon, but they can never equal news agencies.'

'We will talk about the issue in Tehran to find a way for synergy to counter fake news published in social media.

OANA was founded in 1961 with the goal of facilitating information dissemination in the region, supported by the UN cultural entity, the UNESCO. The organization covering two thirds of the world population has now 44 members from 35 countries of Asian and Oceania.

Iran, as a long-standing member, was the rotating president in 1997-2000. The period was followed by a term of vice-presidency until 2016. The country is now a member of OANA executive board.

The last (16th) general assembly of OANA was held in Azerbaijan's capital city, Baku, in 2016 to submit the presidency to the Central Asian country.

At the Tehran meeting, South Korea is expected to assume the rotating presidency for the coming three years.

The executive board comprises of 13 members with Azertac, TASS, Xinhua, Yonhap, Bernama and Anadolu as among its current board of directors members.