The closing session of the 44th Executive Board Meeting of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and Xinhua News Agency (China) have shared the first prize of the OANA Award for Excellence in News Agency Quality.
The award was announced by Secretary General Vugar Seidov of the Organisation of Asia Pacific News Agencies (OANA) at the closing ceremony of the 44th OANA Executive Board Meeting in Hanoi on April 19.
OANA President Aslan Aslanov said the award aims to encourage news agencies to pay more attention to and invest more in innovating professional activities.
Hosted by the VietnamNews Agency (VNA), the meetingfocused on three main contents, including strategies ofnews agencies in response to changes in information use behaviours which focuson video clips and the YouToube platform; fake news and fact-checking; andregaining trust for mainstream news.
This year’sevent saw the attendance of about 40 international delegates who are leadersand representatives of the Executive Board’s member news agencies and invitedOANA members, including influential news agencies in the world - Azertac(Azerbaijan), TASS (Russia), Xinhua (China), Kyodo News (Japan), Yonhap (theRepublic of Korea), AAP (Australia).
Addressing thefirst session, OANA President Aslan Aslanov said: “The OANA Executive Board Meetings serve asa platform for discussing current affairs and ways of developing theorganization and making decisions. We also exchange views on various topics toaddress the challenges facing news agencies. The agenda of today’s meeting featuresinteresting issues such as video content, fake news, news agencies as areliable news source.
According to the OANA President, theproblem of fake news is the most pressing issue today as it plagues newsagencies the most. All OANA member agencies boast long years of history andexperience, some even are almost hundred years old. The principles ofidentifying and fact-checking news before publishing have earned OANA newsagencies high confidence. That's why OANA is truly a team of the most reliablenews producers.
“Therefore, as long as there are newsagencies and the principles of journalism live, the society can feel safe,because although fake news is widespread, we are capable of retaliating withaccurate and reliable news. From this point of view, OANA is a very valuableand trusted organization with rich experience,” he said.
Another point is related to news agencies’daily business which is increasingly dependent on technology, Aslanov said, adding that theapplication of innovations is crucial to gaining an audience and maintainingefficient exchange of information with partner media organizations.
At the session, the Executive Board discussed and endorsedamendments to the OANA Statute,which were drafted and proposed by the working group comprising of the current,previous and next president-agencies, which are AZERTAG, TASS and Yonhap. This working groupwas also supposed to draft proposals to the General Assembly regarding thecriteria for membership.
The Executive Board agreed that the Secretary General would collect all thedecisions made to the Statute, put them together and distribute among the Boardmembers within the next 2 weeks, circulate the amendment proposals to all theOANA members by May 7 at the latest.
In the afternoon session, the delegates deliberated issues facing newsagencies and measures to enhance the efficiency of news agencies in the digitalera.
VNA Deputy General Director Le Quoc Minh held that to regain theaudience’s trust in mainstream news, it is necessary to come back to the corevalues of journalism, professionalism, balance and multi-dimension. Journalistsneed to verify information carefully, especially amidst spreading fake news,improve the quality of their products, enhance professional ethics, masterskills to use new technologies in the working process.
Minh said newsrooms and individualjournalists in Vietnam wanted to apply various tools or actions into theirworking process to improve the quality of their stories and draw users awayfrom fake news. While producing verified news articles in various languages,the VNA has been focused on analysis and in-depth stories, on constructive andsolutions journalism.
The VNA Deputy General Director concludedthat news publishers had to maintain a sustainable trust with their clients andend-users, making them come back to mainstream journalism, and even pay forhigh quality content. To that end, each agency and each journalist must trytheir best to bring the best service to the citizens, not only to sell a storyor a newspaper.
Lee Dong-min,a representative of the Yonhap News Agency, said the Republic of Korea’s mediaoutlets are strengthening their fact-checking mechanisms to prevent damage fromspreading fake news and allow the readers to decide what the facts are whenthere are conflicting versions of stories.
She spokeabout Yonhap’s fact-check team, which was officially launched in April 2018 aspart of the newsroom and its video fact-check service named "Weekly FactCheck" to deal with fake news on YouTube. Yonhap has tried to monitor thespread of false news on the Internet and distorted articles in the media, Leesaid.
The OANA wasestablished on December 22, 1961 as an initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganisation (UNESCO). It aims to facilitate information dissemination and exchangebetween news agencies in Asia-Pacific – a dynamic region that makes up morethan half of the global population.
The OANA members, including many major agencies,are responsible for two-thirds of information circulated throughout the world.Everyday, they publish around 200 news stories, photos and video clips on theOANA website at //www.oananews.org/.
The annual OANA Executive Board Meeting is heldrotationally by Executive Board members. It offers a chance for delegates toshare experience in organisation and development of news agencies, get updatedon global press development trends, and discuss measures to consolidatecooperation between the agencies.
Since joining the OANAin 1969, the VNA has proven itself as one of the active members of theorganisation. The agency was elected to the OANA Executive Board for twoconsecutive terms, with each lasting for three years. The VNA had hosted the OANAExecutive Board Meetings in 1989, 1999 and 2005, actively contributing to completingthe organisation’s targets.-VNA
This year’sevent saw the attendance of about 40 international delegates who are leadersand representatives of the Executive Board’s member news agencies and invitedOANA members, including influential news agencies in the world - Azertac(Azerbaijan), TASS (Russia), Xinhua (China), Kyodo News (Japan), Yonhap (theRepublic of Korea), AAP (Australia).
Addressing thefirst session, OANA President Aslan Aslanov said: “The OANA Executive Board Meetings serve asa platform for discussing current affairs and ways of developing theorganization and making decisions. We also exchange views on various topics toaddress the challenges facing news agencies. The agenda of today’s meeting featuresinteresting issues such as video content, fake news, news agencies as areliable news source.
According to the OANA President, theproblem of fake news is the most pressing issue today as it plagues newsagencies the most. All OANA member agencies boast long years of history andexperience, some even are almost hundred years old. The principles ofidentifying and fact-checking news before publishing have earned OANA newsagencies high confidence. That's why OANA is truly a team of the most reliablenews producers.
“Therefore, as long as there are newsagencies and the principles of journalism live, the society can feel safe,because although fake news is widespread, we are capable of retaliating withaccurate and reliable news. From this point of view, OANA is a very valuableand trusted organization with rich experience,” he said.
Another point is related to news agencies’daily business which is increasingly dependent on technology, Aslanov said, adding that theapplication of innovations is crucial to gaining an audience and maintainingefficient exchange of information with partner media organizations.
At the session, the Executive Board discussed and endorsedamendments to the OANA Statute,which were drafted and proposed by the working group comprising of the current,previous and next president-agencies, which are AZERTAG, TASS and Yonhap. This working groupwas also supposed to draft proposals to the General Assembly regarding thecriteria for membership.
The Executive Board agreed that the Secretary General would collect all thedecisions made to the Statute, put them together and distribute among the Boardmembers within the next 2 weeks, circulate the amendment proposals to all theOANA members by May 7 at the latest.
In the afternoon session, the delegates deliberated issues facing newsagencies and measures to enhance the efficiency of news agencies in the digitalera.
VNA Deputy General Director Le Quoc Minh held that to regain theaudience’s trust in mainstream news, it is necessary to come back to the corevalues of journalism, professionalism, balance and multi-dimension. Journalistsneed to verify information carefully, especially amidst spreading fake news,improve the quality of their products, enhance professional ethics, masterskills to use new technologies in the working process.
Minh said newsrooms and individualjournalists in Vietnam wanted to apply various tools or actions into theirworking process to improve the quality of their stories and draw users awayfrom fake news. While producing verified news articles in various languages,the VNA has been focused on analysis and in-depth stories, on constructive andsolutions journalism.
The VNA Deputy General Director concludedthat news publishers had to maintain a sustainable trust with their clients andend-users, making them come back to mainstream journalism, and even pay forhigh quality content. To that end, each agency and each journalist must trytheir best to bring the best service to the citizens, not only to sell a storyor a newspaper.
Lee Dong-min,a representative of the Yonhap News Agency, said the Republic of Korea’s mediaoutlets are strengthening their fact-checking mechanisms to prevent damage fromspreading fake news and allow the readers to decide what the facts are whenthere are conflicting versions of stories.
She spokeabout Yonhap’s fact-check team, which was officially launched in April 2018 aspart of the newsroom and its video fact-check service named "Weekly FactCheck" to deal with fake news on YouTube. Yonhap has tried to monitor thespread of false news on the Internet and distorted articles in the media, Leesaid.
The OANA wasestablished on December 22, 1961 as an initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganisation (UNESCO). It aims to facilitate information dissemination and exchangebetween news agencies in Asia-Pacific – a dynamic region that makes up morethan half of the global population.
The OANA members, including many major agencies,are responsible for two-thirds of information circulated throughout the world.Everyday, they publish around 200 news stories, photos and video clips on theOANA website at //www.oananews.org/.
The annual OANA Executive Board Meeting is heldrotationally by Executive Board members. It offers a chance for delegates toshare experience in organisation and development of news agencies, get updatedon global press development trends, and discuss measures to consolidatecooperation between the agencies.
Since joining the OANAin 1969, the VNA has proven itself as one of the active members of theorganisation. The agency was elected to the OANA Executive Board for twoconsecutive terms, with each lasting for three years. The VNA had hosted the OANAExecutive Board Meetings in 1989, 1999 and 2005, actively contributing to completingthe organisation’s targets.-VNA
VNA
