MONTSAME DIRECTOR GENERAL WELCOMES GUESTS

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, /MONTSAME/ The Director general of the MONTSAME news agency Mr T.Baasansuren has addressed the 33rd Executive Board meeting and 27th Editorial-Technical Experts Group meeting of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA).
Mr. Baasansuren has thanked all the participants on behalf of the MONTSAME and himself for accepting the invitation to take part in these meetings. “It is a pleasure to greet you in the land of the Great Chinggis Khaan, who was identified as the person of the second Millennium and who was the first person to connect East and West and to set the beginning of information exchange and trade 800 years ago. Welcome to Mongolia," he has said.
The Mongolian National news agency, MONTSAME, was chosen as a member of the Executive Board of the highly respected and influential regional news organization, OANA, at the OANA's General Assembly in Istanbul last year. "I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the OANA president, Secretariat, Executive Board member agencies and all the guests present here for entrusting us the high responsibility to organize the consequential meeting of the OANA's Executive Board,” Mr. Baasansuren has stressed.
He has noted that this year's Executive Board meeting is taking place alongside with commemoration of important events in history of Mongolia, such as the 2220th Anniversary of the founding of Mongolia's Statehood--Hun Empire, 805th anniversary of foundation of the Great Mongol Empire, 100th anniversary of the National Movement for Freedom, and 90th anniversary of the People's Revolution, and the establishment of the National News Agency of Mongolia. "This year is also special as we soon are to celebrate the 50th anniversary of OANA. The Meetings of its Executive Board and the Technical and Editorial Committees are geared towards rendering all possible assistance in implementation of the policies adopted at the OANA General Assemblies, fostering relations and cooperation, and expanding and deepening information exchange between the member agencies,." he has said, adding he is "sure that the Ulaanbaatar meeting will contribute to these processes as well.
“I think that the topic that we have chosen for discussions at the 33-rd Executive Board meeting is answering the demands of present time. We have exchanged our opinions on the topic and came to a consensus with the OANA's Administration and the Secretariat.
Information Database of the OANA is a "large regional information network comprised of wide-ranging news and information fed to the Database on a daily and/or hourly basis from over 40 member countries, and we all assume responsibilities to supply quality, dynamic, and useful news and information to this network in a timely manner," he has said. This explains why high attention is given by the member agencies to the contents and choice of news and information, news processing and its significance; in other words, quality of our products, he went on.
Mr Baasansuren has emphasized that news supplied to the Network should be made on highest level of stylistics, structural and compositional realms as well as in terms of contents and form and should objectively reflect events in our home countries, offering knowledge about our countries in a way understandable to broad foreign audience. “This is the principle of the MONTSAME's work," he has said. "The reason is that via news supplied to the Network we are introducing and promoting our countries to each other and to the rest of the world. We are aware that many countries appreciate using the OANA-disseminated news and information,” he added.
Baasansuren has underlined an importance to use photo images to stress out authenticity and trustworthiness of news and information, and added this is not that difficult. Another issue to be given special attention to within the OANA framework is the cooperation in technical sector. He has suggested that Malaysia BERNAMA agency's specific proposal is supported forwarded at the last year's General Assembly on unifying visual news formats. He hopes that the participants of the Technical Committee meeting will pay a major attention to these and other issues and discus them comprehensively. There is also a proposal to study a possibility of setting a technical team that would unify all technical and technological matters and be in charge of organization of these issues within OANA network, he added.
The national news agencies have their advantages and unlimited resources; pluralistic point of views, fast, competitive and objective news based on facts and reliable sources "are our valuable tradition", he has stressed.
Mr Baasansuren has spoken about the MONTSAME and proposed to organize trainings and seminars for news agencies' journalists on certain topics and at certain times within the OANA framework and with support of the UNESCO. "Together with the Press Institute of Mongolia and the Mongolian National UNESCO Committee, the MONTSAME translated into Mongolian language and published two books in 2011, making them available for broad public--'Freedom of Information: and Comparative Legal Study' and 'Story-Based Inquiry: A manual for investigative journalists," he has said.
“It is clear that we, the representatives of news agencies, must bring our share into this renewal and change in Asia, one of indispensable parts of humankind's development and progress.
MONTSAME agency's activities are fully geared towards informing the outside world about Mongolia and the Mongolian people entering a completely new phase of their development; changing wide-spread and outdated stereotypes and perceptions about Mongolia; and expanding number of supporters of Mongolia abroad, he has said.
Mongolian parliament adopted the law on Freedom of Media in 1998, this was an important step in implementing the Constitutional provision guaranteeing citizens' freedom of speech and expression. This Law prohibites the state and central government, ministries, departments, and agencies to own media organizations, he went on. “Mongolia had solemnly declared to the world that the Mongolian state will not impose censorship on media contents, issue any laws that limit media freedom, and set up any structure to control or finance journalism and literary and artistic activities. This Law had fully served and benefited the Mongolian society. Hence by initiative of Mongolia's President, (President Ts. Elbegdorj is a journalist by training and a colleague by profession) this Law is to be further elaborated and renewed and presently this Law is being discussed in the parliament," he has said. "A Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs is working out the draft of the law about the National News Agency," he has added .
Mr Baasansuren has wished a good success to the OANA's Executive Board and Technical and Editorial Committee meetings and welcomed all participants to "the birth place of the great Chingis Khaan, a person who linked the East and the West and who set the foundation of today's globalization."