OANA's goals can be realized by solidarity and prudence

Kabul, Sept 2, IRNA - Head of Afghanistan Bakhtar News Agency said member states of the Organization of Asia-Pacific Agencies (OANA) should cooperate based on solidarity and prudence to fill the vacuum in area of dissemination of news in the region. In an interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on the occasion of OANA meeting in Tehran, Khalil Minavi noted that the Western media through their equipment and structures are trying to preserve their monopoly on news dissemination while the Eastern media should respond to their readers' needs to compete the Western media. He stated that OANA currently has been successful in forming good harmony among news agencies of the regions and releases the produced news by members based on reality and plays a role as a bridge between news agencies in the the East. Minavi referred to the professional goals of OANA and reiterated that this specialized entity has always played its role based on fair circulation of information and released the news comprehensively and distances itself from political goals and profit and has tried to prevent the outbreak of conflicts among countries ,parties and groups of the region stressing on expanding unity and sympathy. Head of Bakhtar News Agency noted that the serious responsibility of OANA is to counter the targeted and one-way news dissemination which are sometimes untrue and based on the political wills of the owners of the news corporations and reflect the pain and sufferings of the people of the East especially people in the Middle East. 'Unfortunately Western media are neglecting the dire situation in countries of the Middle East like Syria ,Yemen, Palestine and Myanmar refugees and depict the situation untruly and we don’t expect the Western media to pay attention to realities of the regions.' He underlined that Western media are functioning in the favor of their owners and intelligence agencies of their countries and their own profits while neglecting the rights of other nations. Minavi pointed to the Western media coverage of the US behavior on unilateral withdrawal of Iran's Nuclear Deal and other international agreements and reiterated that these media did not refer to the US unilateralism and Lack of adherence to international deals and only repeat the unjustified reasons of the US officials. The 43rd meeting of the executive board of Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) will be hosted by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) in Tehran on September 3. The day-long meeting will be attended by heads and senior officials of 18 news agencies from Russia, Republic of Azerbaijan, China, Qatar, Turkey, Oman, Mongolia, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bulgaria, and the Iranian Mehr News Agency. Most of the participating news agencies are members of the executive board, and some are invited as the observers and special guests in Tehran meeting. The OANA was founded in 1961 with the goal of facilitating information dissemination in the region, supported by the UN cultural entity, the UNESCO. The organization covering two thirds of the world population has now 44 members from 35 countries of Asian and Oceania. Iran, as a long-standing member, has been the rotating president in 1997-2000. The period was followed by a term of vice-presidency until 2016. The country is now a member of OANA executive board. The last (16th) general assembly of OANA was held in Azerbaijan's capital city, Baku, in 2016 to submit the presidency to the Central Asian country. At Tehran meeting, South Korea is expected to assume the rotating presidency for the coming three years. The executive board comprises of 13 members with Azertac, ITAR-TASS, Xinhua, Yonhap and Anadolu as its current board of directors members. Follow us on Twitter@IrnaEnglish