OANA XVI General Assembly
November 18, 2016, Baku, Azerbaijan

Participants: AZERTAC (Azerbaijan), AAP (Australia), Anadolu (Turkey), ANTARA (Indonesia), APP (Pakistan), Bakhtar (Afghanistan), Bernama (Malaysia), BNA (Bahrain), FNA (Iran), TASS (Russia), IRNA (IRNA), Yonhap (South Korea), Jiji Press (Japan), Kabar (Kyrgyzstan), Kazinform (Kazakhstan), KCNA (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), Khabar (Kazakhstan), KUNA (Kuwait), Kyodo (Japan), MNA (Iran), MONTSAME (Mongolia), NINA (Iraq), NNA (Lebanon), ONA (Oman), PPI (Pakistan), PTI (India), QNA (Qatar), Rossiya Segodnya (Russia), SABA (Yemen), SANA (Syria), SPA (Saudi Arabia), TNA (Thailand), Trend (Azerbaijan), VNA (Vietnam), WAM (UAE), Xinhua (China), and others.

OANA Secretary General Mr. Mikhail Gusman`s opening remarks
Mr. Mikhail Gusman welcomed the participants of the OANA XVI General Assembly. The OANA Secretary General stated the quorum is present and called for the adoption of the Agenda of the XVI General Assembly. The agenda of 39th OANAS EBM was adopted.

OANA President, TASS Director General Mr. Sergey Mikhaylov’s opening address

Mr. Sergey Mikhaylov welcomed all participants at the General Assembly. He thanked Director General of AZERTAC Mr. Aslan Aslanov for cordial reception in Baku.
“Lately we worked on quite a few important professional issues: the changing image of the mass media, the activities of news services in the era of booming social networks and mobile communication, journalists’ observance of ethnical norms and many other issues.
OANA has established a special committee on ethics for assistance in ensuring journalists’ right to access information, first and foremost, in countries with unstable situations, where restrictions on media freedom are in effect.
The Australian news agency AAP worked out the professional standards for OANA member countries. Among other things they stipulate that all content provided by news agencies’ journalists must be checked and have an authorized source of information. Editing photo products that may distort the content is prohibited. In accordance with the newly-adopted ethical norms we pledged to refrain from using any reports that may directly or indirectly promote the activity of terrorist organizations, as well as from using their rhetoric, jargon and symbols.
OANA’s Internet portal (oananews.org) has been developing steadily with support from TASS. Today it is a unique online resource generating news flows, including photo and video content of the Asia-Pacific Region in general.
The opening of the organization’s official accounts in Facebook and Google Plus was a serious step forward in expanding OANA’s presence in modern information resources,” he said.
Mr. Sergey Mikhaylov spoke about the enhancement of interaction with a number of international regional media organizations, such as the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), restored cooperation with the Alliance of Mediterranean News Agencies (AMAN), established ties with the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), and the Latin American Union of News Agencies (ULAN). He expressed his hope for useful and fruitful cooperation.
He also reminded that at a meeting of the OANA Executive Board in Kuala Lumpur in February 2014 TASS proposed introducing an Excellency Award.
“From now on it will be conferred annually upon individual journalists or teams of OANA news agencies for outstanding achievements and for improving the quality of news services.
So far we have held two rounds of the contest to name the first laureates. Let me now hand the well-deserved awards to the winners!
The winner of the 2015 award is the chief of the media technologies department of the South Korean news agency Yonghap Mr. Tae-Sung Jung. The Award is for exceptional achievements in developing innovative media business technologies and capabilities. The winner of the 2016 award is Andrey Lebedev, TASS executive editor for information quality control. The award is for devising and implementing the agency’s news content quality control system,” he stated.
The winners were awarded.
In conclusion Mr. Sergey Mikhaylov said that TASS as OANA president has ensured the organization’s smooth operation, expanded new realms of activity and enhanced the role of OANA as the main interstate media structure of the Asia-Pacific Region.

Mr. Mikhail Gusman discussed financial contributions and the amounts to be contributed to OANA by its members ($1K/year), stating that the general fund of OANA is of November 2016 has $175,242.
The Secretary invited the participants to vote to confirm the membership fee of $1K which was approved.
He spoke about the final Technical report prepared by TASS and called to adopt the report. The Technical report was adopted by the participants. He also thanked TASS team for developing the OANA website.

Editor-in-chief of AAP Mr. Tony Gillies`s remarks on ethical report

Mr. Tony Gillies talked about the ethical code of OANA. He stated that OANA members agreed to comply with ethics code of practices after the Seoul conference. Mr. Tony Gillies restated the cannons of journalism in the ethics code: accuracy, impartiality, privacy, objectivity, objecting discrimination, etc. He said that OANA Editorial and Technical Committee created a draft guideline that was ratified in 2015 in OANA meeting in South Korea.

Mr. Mikhail Gusman Thanked Mr. Tony Gillies for his remarks. He called the participants to adopt the report of the Editorial and Technical Committee. The report was adopted.

Mr. Park No-hwang thanked the OANA leadership for their enormous contribution for the development of the organization.

Mr. Mikhail Gusman discussed the next leadership of the organization. He suggested to nominate AZERTAC (Azerbaijan) to be the president of OANA and TASS (Russia), Anadolu Agency (Turkey), Xinhua (China), Yonhap (South Korea) for the role of vice-president; IRNA (Iran), BNA (Bahrein), VNA (Vietnam), NNA (Lebanon), AAP (Australia), Kyodo (Japan), PTI (India) and Bernama (Malaysia) to be in the Executive Committee of OANA. The total number of members of the Executive Committee is 13 news agencies. The decision was approved by the participants.

Newly elected president of OANA, Director General of AZERTAC Mr. Aslan Aslanov`s remarks

Mr. Aslan Aslanov expressed his gratitude for election AZERTAC the president of OANA for 2016-2019. He also thanked TASS for its wonderful work managing OANA activities during its tenure. He noted its contribution to developing the organizational website and saving membership fees and contributions. He also nominated the special correspondent of AZERTAC in Germany Mr. Vugar Seidov as the news secretary general of OANA.

Mr. Mikhail Gusman discussed the list of members of the Technical Committee and the Ethic Committee. He suggested that the Technical Committee will include AZERTAC, TASS, MNA, Montsame, Antara, Kazinform and KUNA. The suggestion was adopted by the GA participants. Mr. Gusman suggested the Ethic Committee to include AZERTAC, AAP, WAM and Kyodo. The list was approved by the participants.
He also nominated Yonhap News Agency to be the host agency of the next – XVII General Assembly of OANA. Yonhap was elected the host agency of the XVII General Assembly of OANA in 2019.