Yonhap News TV signs content exchange agreement with Al Jazeera

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DOHA, Qatar, June 9 (Yonhap) -- Yonhap News TV, an all-news cable channel to be launched later this year, signed an agreement with Al Jazeera Satellite Network on Thursday for exchanges of video news content.
Signed between Park Jung-chan, president and CEO of Yonhap News TV, and Wadah Khanfar, director general of Al Jazeera Satellite Network, the Reciprocal News Access Agreement allows the two companies to use each other's news content on television. Content that has been broadcast will also be made available on Web sites and wireless applications.



The two parties also agreed to give favorable consideration to requests for access to recorded, unbroadcasted material and to provide support in establishing and running their representative bureaus in Seoul and Doha. They also agreed to extend equal assistance to each other's correspondents, and special and visiting reporters.
"Al Jazeera is a necessity. It provides a balanced flow of news," Park said after signing the agreement.
Park invited executives of Al Jazeera to attend a launching ceremony of Yonhap News TV.
Khanfar also said, "Al Jazeera hopes to open Seoul bureau very soon in South Korea," while Al Anstey, managing director of Al Jazeera English, said, "We appreciate the partnership."
Yonhap News TV is the first South Korean media firm to sign such an agreement with Al Jazeera, the leading news channel in the Arab world.



The deal is seen as mutually beneficial.
The partnership with Al Jazeera, which is armed with unrivaled news coverage capabilities in the Middle East and Northern Africa, is expected to help Yonhap News TV offer viewers more in-depth coverage of news in the region.
Yonhap News TV also plans to take advantage of the network of correspondents of Yonhap News, its largest shareholder and South Korea's No. 1 newswire service, to help cover news in the region. Yonhap News currently has five correspondents in the Middle East and Africa, the largest number for a South Korean media firm.
The deal is also meaningful to Al Jazeera in that the channel secured a key source of news video in South Korea, where it is trying to open a bureau in Seoul within this year. Al Jazeera says greater viewer interest in news on South Korea has led it to try to open the Seoul bureau.
It plans to provide Arab viewers with a more detailed view of what is happening in South Korea with a focus on inter-Korean relations, South Korea's advanced information technology and economic issues.
Yonhap News TV is an affiliate of Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's key news wire service that produces content for newspapers, broadcasters, Internet portals, the government and private enterprises, distributing some 3,000 news articles per day. The agency has reporting staff in 46 major cities in 35 countries as well as the most extensive nationwide network in South Korea, and provides daily news in Korean, Arabic, English, Japanese, Chinese, French and Spanish.
Al Jazeera has more than 65 bureaus and 3,000 staff members across the world and broadcasts news and current affairs 24 hours a day from its Doha headquarters and from centers in Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington D.C.