Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

The state-run Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency (AzerTag) has been elected to preside over the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) in 2016-2019.

The decision was made at the 15th General Assembly of OANA where Azerbaijan was represented by AzerTag and another leading Azerbaijani news agency, Trend.

Thus, the next meeting of OANA's General Assembly will be held in the Azerbaijani capital Baku in 2016.

The Iranian state news agency IRNA, which collected nine votes against 14, was also bidding for the presidency.

AzerTag Director General Aslan Aslanov thanked the members of OANA for appreciating the work of the Azerbaijani news agency. He pledged to hold the Baku meeting at the highest level and to justify their confidence.

Aslanov was elected Vice President of OANA for 2013-2016. The elections were held at the closing session of the OANA General Assembly in Moscow on September 20.

Turkish news agency Anadolu passed on its three-year presidency to Russia's ITAR-TASS for 2013-2016.

First Deputy Director General of ITAR-TASS Mikhail Gusman was elected Secretary General of the organization.

Then, the participants of the meeting voted to increase OANA's Executive Office members from 11 to 13 and elected its membership. AzerTag became a member of the Executive Committee of OANA for the third time. Also, the number of members of OANA's Technical Committee increased from five to seven.

A decision was also made to hold the next meeting of OANA's Executive Board in Bahrain. The meeting will be organized by Bahrain News Agency (BNA).

OANA, which was established in 1961, is the largest media organization and brings together the leaders of 44 news agencies from 35 countries.