ISTANBUL — Viet Nam News Agency (VNA) General Director Tran Mai Huong says multimedia is becoming an inevitable trend for the survival of news agencies and Asia-Pacific news agencies should co-operate in developing a multimedia platform to share their products.
Addressing the 14th General Assembly of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) which was held in Istanbul, Turkey from November 24-27, the director general called on OANA to make adjustments in accordance with developing technologies and the habits of media consumers. "We are facing greater and more challenging competition as a number of our traditional key clients – some print newspapers – have already disappeared," he said.
"However, multimedia has become an inevitable trend for the survival of our VNA and like our fellow news agencies it is on that track."
He proposed the OANA co-operate in developing a multimedia platform on which member agencies can share video clips as they do with text news and photos.
"With this, member agencies can reduce production costs and raise prestige, as well as deliver more lively messages about our own countries," he said. General Director Huong and Mehr News Agency of Iran (MNA) Director General Reza Moqadassi signed a co-operation agreement between the two agencies while at the general assembly. The agreement lays a foundation for information exchange and professional co-operation, particularly for exchange of video clips and TV programmes in the English language which are of great importance in the present digital and multimedia age.
The participants at the General Assembly discussed and adopted the Istanbul Declaration which spells out the need for OANA members to increase co-operation in light of the globalisation of information and developments taking place in cyberspace. — VNS
