The General Assembly discussed the report related to convening the Second World Media Summit in Moscow from 4 to 7 July 2012 and inviting Kingdom of Bahrain to hold the third summit in the Bahraini Capital in 2014.
The Assembly listened to a detail of the discussed issues, the challenges facing the media devices in the 21st century, and the need to include in the third summit those activities.
“The media in the light of local wars and revolutions and the need to support the media platforms to be used in broadcasting information objectively,” the statement issued at the end of the two day event said.
After the Assembly discussed all those issues, it took the following decisions include the General Assembly is to follow the third media summit in Moscow and provide Bahrain News Agency (BNA) with the useful reports and information; the Arab News Agencies provide the General Assembly with the recommendations related to such issue to ensure sending a full report to (BNA) concerning the third media summit associated with experiences inspired by the Fourth International Conference of the news agencies, which will be held in Riyadh on 17-21 November 2013 and the General Assembly of (FANA) also discussed the seminar “Transformations taking place and the role of news agencies in the future,” based on the political, social and cultural changes, and the current outcomes taking place now in the Arab region.
Meanwhile, the General Assembly thanked (BNA) for inviting it to hold the seminar in Manama in 2013.
Concerning the fourth conference of news agencies, the General Assembly briefed the Federation on the prepared report on the Fourth International Conference of the news agencies, which will be held in Saudi Arabia in 2013. It also briefed the Federation on the preparations taken thereon and the four meetings held by the International Council for the news agencies, which is considered the preparatory body for the conference in Riyadh, and London.
The General Assembly also was briefed on the prepared agenda, and listened to a detail presented by the Director General of the Saudi News Agency on the agency’s preparations to ensure the attendance of more than 110 news agencies in the world, in addition to senior figures in the field of news agencies and media.
The General Assembly discussed allocating an award for the best electronic website, the related decisions to this issue and the reply of three news agencies about the idea, as well as calling the Arab news Agencies to send their replies, and special recommendations about that issue.
Regarding the Child’s website, the Assembly listened to a brief about the specialized regional website to inform the Arab child of its headquarters which is the Qatari News Agency, where the news about the Arab child is published aiming at developing their talents and thinking abilities.
Regarding the best report and best image, the General Assembly was briefed on the reports and images related to such reward for the year 2012, and decisions and recommendations taken in the Federation’s meetings.
The General Assembly listened to the brief presented by the General Secretariat of the Federation indicated that it received seven reports from news agencies and one image in the period from the beginning of the year till the fifth month, but the first meeting of the General Secretariat was not held due to the current circumstances.
The committee reviewed a report pointing out that most of the associated reports were not conforming to the rules and classifications, for those who prepared they did not care about those rules.
After the committee discussed all the issues, it took the following decisions including the General Secretariat of the Federation sends summaries of the images and reports received in 2012 to the members of the Authority (being the Arbitration committee) to perform the required evaluation for them, and then send them back to the General Secretariat of the Federation Prior to the convening of the General Secretariat to declare the winning report and images for the year 2012; demanding from all of Arab News Agencies to send their reports and images for 2013 before the end of the fifth month of 2013, so the General Secretariat body studies them in its semi-annual meeting, and declare the winning report for the year 2013, taking into consideration that the report would follow the rules and terms approved by the General Assembly of the Federation; with regard to FANA website on the Internet (Web news-exchange) the General Assembly reviewed the report submitted by the technician responsible for FANA website on the Internet, and the sustainable development through the increase of the number of news, and discussed with a great concern the importance of that website to broadcast the Arab news and the committee listened to the offer made by President of the Federation on the need to set up a new website and the Qatari News Agency to provide a full concept on the issue with affording the costs of that and decided the following called upon Arab news agencies that participate in FANA page to increase their concern with images, especially those changing in the first page of the website and asked the Qatari News Agency to present a comprehensive outline for a new website, on condition that the Agency will pay all the costs, and introduce the project to be discussed in the semi-annual meeting of the General Secretariat.