OANA’s executive board holds meeting in China

By Emre Aytekin and Serdar Dincel

BOAO, China/ISTANBUL (AA) - The 57th Executive Board Meeting of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) was held Wednesday in Boao, a coastal town in China's island province of Hainan.

The meeting was moderated by Fu Hua, the president of China's Xinhua News Agency, and Andrey Kondrashov, the director general of Russia's TASS news agency.

It was attended by executives from OANA member news agencies including Anadolu CEO Serdar Karagoz and Strategic Communications and External Relations Manager Bilgehan Ozturk.

At the meeting, the Mongolian National News Agency MONTSAME was elected to the vacant membership of the organization’s board.

The OANA Executive Board members issued a joint statement at the meeting calling for the safety of journalists in conflict zones.

Stressing that journalists in conflict zones perform a public service, combating disinformation and defending people's right to information, the statement said protecting the rights of journalists must be a priority for state institutions in all countries.

The participants agreed that the 58th OANA Board Meeting would be hosted by Qatar's news agency QNA and that the 59th meeting would be hosted by Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA.

Following the board meeting, panels were held to discuss the transformation brought about by artificial intelligence (AI) in media and its ethical implications, as well as global threats to journalists and the necessary measures for information security.

After the meeting, Karagoz met with Fu.

Stating that Türkiye will host next year's UN climate change conference COP31 and that Anadolu will organize an environmental forum before the summit to address the responsibilities of news organizations in environmental matters, Karagoz invited Fu and the Xinhua team to Türkiye for the forum.