40th FANA General Assembly Concludes

Manama, December 27 (QNA) - The 40th General Assembly of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), hosted by the kingdom of Bahrain from December 26 to 27, with the participation of 15 news agencies out of the 18 members, concluded here today under the chairmanship of Director-General of Qatar News Agency (QNA) and FANA President, Mr. Ahmed Saad Al-Buainain. According to the communique, FANA General Assembly listened to a presentation by its President on the establishment of a new FANA website, during which he stressed QNA's readiness to provide a full concept and the necessary funds for it. The project will be presented during FANA General Secretariat's first semi-annual meeting. He also briefed the participants on the interactive news website for children (QNA Kids), which provides children-friendly news updates on politics, the economy, culture and sports. The website is designed to help engage children with the world's current affairs, using not only news bulletins, but also pictures, words and videos together with electronic games to encourage life-long learning. The meeting discussed thoroughly the 4th World Congress of News Agencies, due to be hosted in Saudi Arabia in November, 2013, the first of its kind to be held in Arab countries and is expected to reflect positively on all Arab news agencies, said the communique. FANA's General Assembly decided to freeze the membership of news agencies which fail to pay their arrears to FANA and prevent them from taking part in any of its Arab or international functions. The two-day meeting also discussed FANA's future plans, training sessions and cooperation with other news agencies, including workshops for editors of economic news. FANA allocated part of its conference to cooperation with European news agencies and requested the Committee on Follow up of Arab-World news agencies to convene in 2013 to discuss holding meetings with representatives of European and world news agencies, according to the communique. The General Assembly also reviewed steps taken so far to develop Arab news agencies and welcomed the on-going cooperation between FANA and some world news agencies such as the Associated Press (AP), Reuters and Agence France Presse (AFP), calling for the need to hold a round-table bringing together Arab and European news agencies in order to deepen cooperation and enhance exchange of expertise, it said. FANA's General Assembly also decided to maintain the unified Arab Economic Bulletin and discussed granting awards for distinguished Arab editors, reporters and photographers in order to motivate them and upgrade their performance, it added. Head of news Directorate, Mr. Abdullah bin Abdulrahman Al-Muzaffar, represented QNA in the conference. (QNA)