BAKU, November 18. /TASS/. TASS Russian News Agency is the winner of the OANA (Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies) 2015 Award for Excellence in News Agency Quality.

"The award is given to reporters and agencies, OANA members, for progress in quality of information services,” the Organization’s President, TASS Director General Sergei Mikhailov said on Friday at the OANA XVI General Assembly, which has opened in Baku.

The award was handed to TASS Executive Editor, Information Quality Control Andrey Lebedev. The decision on the winner was based on the voting among executives of OANA member agencies. The majority of 26 votes supported the system of information quality control, used at TASS. The leading Russian agency has been using the system for almost a year now, and the newswire quality has grown by four times already. No other media have similar quality control program.

In 2015, the award was given to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency Chief of the Media Technology Department Jung Tae-sung for the agency’s outstanding achievements in technological advances and new business opportunities.

OANA unites 44 news agencies from 35 countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The member agencies account for two-thirds of the global information stream.