54th OANA Executive Board Meeting
February 17, 2025
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Executive Board Members held two expert panels before the Meeting:
Panel Session 1: “Evolving Newsrooms: Building Digital-First, Audience-Centric Approach to Stay Ahead”
Moderator: Zaman Rezakhani, OANA Secretary General
Speakers:
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Mr. Nguyen Duc Vu, Chief Technology Officer, VNA
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Dr. Claymond Lim Wei Xiang, PhD in Computer Science, AIGC Architect, Huawei Cloud Malaysia
Panel Session 2: “Credibility in the Crosshairs: Combating Misinformation and Disinformation"
Moderator: Mr. Gerard Ratnam, Head of Programme BERNAMA TV
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Ms. Khulan Banzragch, Director for Foreign Relations and Cooperation, Montsame
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Ms. Hazal Duran, Strategic Communications and Brand Management Director, AA
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Mr. Mahmoud Farahani, IT Department Manager, MNA
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Mr. Yaroslav Kurilo, Deputy Director of the International Relations Department, TASS
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Ms. Sakina Haji Mohamed, Editor of Digital Media, BERNAMA
Minutes of the 54th OANA Executive Board Meeting
Participants (in alphabetic order):
AA (Türkiye), ANTARA (Indonesia), Azertac (Azerbaijan), BERNAMA (Malaysia), IRNA (Iran), Kyodo News (Japan), MNA (Guest / Iran), Montsame (Mongolia), QNA (Qatar), TASS (Russia), VNA (Vietnam), Xinhua (China), Yonhap (South Korea).
Absentees: WAM (UAE).
Opening
In the beginning of the meeting and on the occasion of the 80the anniversary of Vietnam News Agency (VNA), the VNA Secretary General, Ms. Vu Viet Trang made a speech on the agency's achievements and plans for further progress.
Then the OANA Secretary General presented a summarized report of the previous meeting, and the Board members confirmed the minutes.
Financial Report
The Secretary General presented a brief report to the Executive Board members on the OANA fund performance. He reminded the Board that OANA account is in South Korea and Yonhap news agency is the account holder.
The account balance on the day of the 54rd EBM was $312,534.59USD + €933.
Referring to the significant number of OANA members who do not pay the membership fee, the SG informed the Board that while some news agencies are willing to pay, they are hindered by sanctions and international banking issues (e.g., Sputnik, TASS, and Iranian agencies).
He also mentioned that some active but small agencies cannot afford the fee. Additionally, there are a number of agencies that are indifferent--they do not participate in OANA activities and do not pay the membership fee.
The SG said one of the tasks of the next OANA president (TASS) and the Board is to address these challenges.
OANA Workshops
As the theme of the meeting was "AI & Data: The New Force behind Digital-Age Newsrooms" the Secretary General proposed that OANA holds online workshops on "news agencies & new digital technologies" and "news agencies & AI".
The Board authorized the SG to invite well-known international professionals to run the workshops before the upcoming General Assembly.
Announcing the 2024 Award Winners
A video clip of the submitted photos for the 2024 competition was played.
The winners of the 2024 Best Photo Awards & the 2024 Best Article Awards were announced.
The SG informed the Board members that the certificates and the cash prizes will be awarded to winners during the General Assembly to be held in Moscow in June 2025.
The 2025 OANA Awards
The Secretary General presented a report to the Board highlighting that the initiative to hold photo and article competitions in OANA led to greater participation, in contrast to the traditional competitions which were limited to organizational projects.
He proposed that OANA replicate the success of the 2024 competitions and organize the 2025 Best Article and Best Photo contests, this time featuring a wider array of topics and categories: economy, business, society, culture, environment, sports.
A Look into Asia
The SG announced that the OANA secretariat is creating a digital photo album of submitted photos to the 2024 competition. The name of the album will be A Look into Asia.
He requested that agencies which have not submitted photos to the competition send their photos separately to be included in the album.
OANA Archive
The SG explained how to access the newly created OANA archive.
This section of the OANA website is only available to the executive board members of the Organization after they log in.
OANA General Assembly
Representative of the Russian News Agency, TASS, explained that the upcoming OANA General Assembly will be held in June 21st in St. Petersburg (not in Moscow).
