BAKU, November 16. /TASS/. The V World Congress of News Agencies in Baku discusses development of international cooperation in the information sphere, impartiality and accuracy in coverage of global news. The event’s slogan is “New Challenges for News Agencies.”

President of the World Congress of News Agencies and of the Saudi Press Agency Abdullah bin Fahd Al-Hussein stressed the Congress’ mission is important in development of cooperation between news services, in establishment of exchanging experience between them in the time of rapid development of information technologies and social networks. “This is important both for the agencies, and for the information consumers,” he said.

Professional standards for news agencies

The importance of accurate coverage of global news, of the impartial approach to information presentation was highlighted in a speech by TASS Director General, President of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) Sergei Mikhailov. He stressed, OANA is a platform, where the participating agencies not only exchange experience, but also find common solutions for complicated problems, where they “make major decisions, which affect directly stability in the global information space.”

“One of the documents of the kind is the member-agencies’ professional standards, which we adopted last year,” he said. “They, among others, introduce responsibility for accuracy of information – news, photo and video materials, and also ban any publications, which may support activities of terrorist organizations.”

Demand for accurate information

President of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) and Executive Director of the Swedish TT press agency Jonas Eriksson said “the global demand for accurate information is becoming more and more important.” “The rapid development of information technologies requires impartial and reliable sources of information,” he said. This idea was shared by Head of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), Chairman and Director General of the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah, who stressed the daily-growing importance of accurate news.

“It is necessary to publish accurate information, to make sure it is trustful, so that people could realize what is happening,” he said, stressing the important role of news agencies in promotion of tolerance and multiculturalism. He spoke for implementation of joint projects to strengthen fighting terrorism, to overcome the extremism thinking.

Attention to reporters’ security

Director General of Azerbaijan’s state information agency, AZERTAC, Aslan Aslanov, said the media would continue playing tremendous role in the human lives, and “hot” news would still remain the most popular “food.” “This is why,” he said, “we as the news producers, as representatives of this sector, should stick to the adherence to making most accurate, truthful and professionally perfect information and to quick delivering of it to the consumers.”

Aslanov also stressed the importance of paying attention to security of reporters who work in crisis spots, to smooth coverage of the events in conflict areas. “Now that many conflicts and confrontations have escalated, this issue is of special importance,” he said. Chief Executive of the UK’s Press Association Group Clive Marshall drew attention to the fact that more than 800 reporters had been killed lately in the conflict areas, thus reporters’ security is becoming extremely important, he said.

Marshall also said about the changes in the media due to development of the information technologies. Fragmentation of the media audience is developing, he said, stressing it had caused slump in newspapers’ circulation.

The Congress, organized by Azerbaijan’s biggest non-governmental organization – the Geidar Aliyev Foundation – and AZERTAC, features executives and representatives of about 100 international leading news services, including TASS, Reuters, Associated Press, France-Presse, DPA, Xinhua, Kyodo News, EFE, as well as international media organizations, and information experts.

The Congress works to November 17.