IRNA chief: Cooperation of OANA members remarkable capacity to defend real rights of nations

Tehran, Sept 2, IRNA - Managing Director of the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Zia Hashemi described cooperation within the framework of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) as a unique capacity to defend the real rights of nations and reflect the existing realities of the member-states Ahead of the 43rd meeting of the Executive Board of OANA in Tehran, Hashemi in a meeting with Qatar's News Agency managing director (QNA) and accompanying delegation in IRNA on Sunday referred to IRNA and Qatar's official news agency cooperation over the last forty years, and said, 'IRNA's activity in Doha has provided a good opportunity for the development of media cooperation between the two countries and we have no limitation for the development of these interactions.' He recalled the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between IRNA and QNA 18 years ago, and stressed, 'We are going to renew the existing memorandum, and while there have been several meetings between managers of both news agencies during this period, we are going to update the provisions of the memorandum in this meeting.' Hashemi expressed his desire to reflect more QNA news in IRNA's website and to exchange news with QNA and communicate more with the audience of this Arab media. He added that the News College of IRNA has a good capacity for training journalists in the region, adding that IRNA has recently embarked on serious multimedia activities and the research sector can be a valuable asset in the field to serve the mutual cooperation between Iran and Qatar in the field of strategic research. IRNA managing director described Qatar's official news agency as one of the prominent members of OANA, and stated, 'While, on Monday we witness a meeting of the members of the Executive Board of OANA in Tehran, we are interested in hosting some of the regional news agencies' directors with whom we have closer cultural proximity, including Qatar, Iraq and Syria, and these members will also be present at the Executive Board meeting.' He described the OANA meeting as an opportunity for countries that were exposed to media attacks of the world and noted, 'Our country now faces severe media outbursts, apart from political and economic aggressions, and Qatar has also had a great experience in this regard.' 'When you encountered some sanctions from neighboring countries, a wave of sympathy was created among the Iranian people towards Qatari people, and the intimacy of the people of both countries was clearly manifested,' Hashemi said while addressing his Qatari counterpart.