OANA TO COLLECTIVELY TACKLE COPYRIGHT ISSUE

ULAN BATOR, June 29 (Bernama) -- The Organisation of Asia Pacific News
Agencies (OANA) will have to collectively fight the copyright issue instead of
letting members to deal with it on their own, said OANA president Hilmi Bengi .

Wrapping-up a two-day OANA Executive Board meeting here Wednesday, Bengi
said the problem had greatly affected income of news agencies operating on
commercial basis.

“The Internet news aggregators gather our output and give them out for
free,” said Bengi, adding that he hoped that OANA could have a separate meeting
to discuss the issue.

He said as the meeting here was for the executive board, its participation
and issues raised were rather restricted.

However Bengi said country reports presented by every board member were
useful as they could share experience especially in new products like television
service.

Members also picked out winners for a photo contest held on the sidelines of
the meeting. Kyodo won the grand award and special prize for its submission on
tsunami, Anadolu for best picture while the other special prize went to
Montsame.

The board members later met Mongolian Parliament Speaker D.Demberel at
Parliament House.

The 11-member board comprises of Anadolu of Turkey as president, four
vice-presidents, namely Bernama (Malaysia), Antara (Indonesia), Itar-TASS
(Russia) and IRNA (Iran). The remaining members are Yonhap South Korea, Press
Trust of India (PTI), Azertaj (Azerbaijan), Australian Associated Press (AAP),
Xinhua (China) and Montsame (Mongolia).

Bernama is represented by its General Manager Hasnul Hassan.

Formed in 1961 to encourage the free flow of news and information exchange
among news agencies in Asia-Pacific, the 43-strong OANA will celebrate its 50th
anniversary at its birth place – Bangkok in December.
-- BERNAMA