A quick look at OANA

Tehran, IRNA – The capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran is scheduled to host the 18th general assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), where 43 news agencies from 35 countries are members and Iran is the only country with three members in the organization. The OANA was established on December 22, 1961, in a bid to facilitate information dissemination among regional countries with the support of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) along with Fars and Mehr news agencies are the three media agencies in Iran representing the Islamic country in the OANA. IRNA is one of the first members of the organization, and presided over it between 1997 to 2000; then, the Iranian news agency acted as the vice chairman of the regional organization in 2016, and now IRNA is a member of the executive committee of OANA. Yonhap from South Korea has served as the president of OANA for recent years with some news agencies acting as vice chairmen from Azerbaijan Republic, Russia, China, and Turkey. News agencies from Iran, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Vietnam, and Mongolia are members of the executive board of the organization. Members of the technical committee are news agencies from Indonesia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Iran, Azerbaijan Republic, India, and Pakistan. The Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies composes of four sections, including a general assembly, an executive board, as well as technical and moral committees. The general assembly convenes each of three years when the hosting news agency is selected as the interim president of the OANA for a year-year period. The 17th general assembly of the OANA was held in Seoul, South Korea, in 2019, and now it is Tehran’s turn to preside over the organization. The general assembly is held at the highest level of every news agency to discuss infrastructural issues; upgrade of activities of members; macro-politics; review, reform, and ratification of agreements of the executive board and the technical and news groups; offering suggestions to the executive board and pursuing executive issues; as well as decision-making on new members. Every member is expected to pay 1k US dollars as the membership fee. IRNA has paid its fees regularly. Palestine’s Wafa news agency has an observer status in the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies. Follow us on Twitter@IrnaEnglish