Nov 14, 2009, 5:33 PM

OANA president arrives in Tehran

TEHRAN, Nov. 14 (MNA) -- OANA President Ahmad Mukhlis Yusuf arrived in Tehran today to attend the 31st Executive Board Meeting (EBM) and the 25th Editorial-Technical Experts Group (ETEG) Meeting.

Hosted by the Iranian Mehr News Agency, the 31st EBM and 25th ETEG Meetings are to be held on the theme of “A quest for global media balancing” in Tehran from November 13 to 17, 2009.

Mukhlis Yusuf, leading a delegation of a number of representatives from the Indonesian Antara News Agency, was received by Managing Director of the Mehr News Agency and the Tehran Times daily Parviz Esmaeili on his arrival at the Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA).

The Antara News Agency is the rotating president of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA). Mukhlis Yusuf is also the CEO of Antara, the Indonesian news agency.

Governmental and non-governmental news agencies from the Asia-Pacific states, including Russia, Japan, China, S. Korea, Indonesia, India, and Malaysia, will participate in the November meetings.

Representatives from 11 countries are scheduled to deliver country reports at Tehran’s Sunday meetings.

The Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency (AzerTAc), the Press Trust of India (PTI), the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), the Japanese Kyodo News Agency, and the South Korean Yonhap News Agency, as well as the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) are the members of the 31st Executive Board, scheduled to gather in Tehran in a bid to close gaps between the world media.

The VNA, the Yonhap, the Malaysian BERNAMA News Agency, the Iranian Republic News Agency (IRNA), the Russian ITAR-TASS News Agency, the Kyodo and the PTI, as well as the Chinese Xinhua News Agency make up the 25th Editorial-Technical Board.

The Azerbaijan Trend News Agency, and the Mongolian Montsame News Agency, as well as the Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) are the non-members of the Tehran’s ETEG Meeting.

The Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) was formed in 1961 on the initiative of UNESCO to secure direct and free exchange of news between the news agencies of a region inhabited by more than one half of the world's population.

OANA represents 40 news agencies from 33 countries in the Asian Pacific region, which are responsible for two-thirds of information circulated throughout the world.

ANTARA is the official news agency of the government of Indonesia. It was founded on December 13, 1937. It became the country’s news agency in 1962.

The MNA is hosting the 31st Executive Board Meeting (EBM) and the 25th Editorial-Technical Experts Group (ETEG) Meeting. The forum runs from November 13 to 17 to be attended by over 40 representatives of 18 governmental and non-governmental news agencies from the Asia-Pacific states.

News ID 36922