Azerbaijan to host next OANA General Assembly

The 10th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) will be hosted by AZERTAC in Azerbaijan in 2028.

The decision was made by vote during the 19th OANA General Assembly held in Saint Petersburg.

The Russian state news agency TASS was unanimously elected as the chair of OANA until 2028. TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov was elected President of OANA for the duration of the chairmanship, while TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman will serve as Secretary-General.

A new composition of the OANA Executive Committee was also formed. IRNA (Iran), Yonhap (Republic of Korea), AZERTAC (Azerbaijan), Anadolu (Türkiye), and Xinhua (China) were elected as OANA vice presidents. Antara (Indonesia), Bernama (Malaysia), QNA (Qatar), BNA (Bahrain), Kyodo (Japan), and VNA (Vietnam) were elected as members of the Executive Committee. The Technical Committee will be chaired by Oman’s ONA, and the Ethics Committee by Pakistan’s APP.

The General Assembly also addressed key issues such as combating fake news and disinformation, as well as the integration of artificial intelligence technologies into the media. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova and representatives from Yonhap and Kyodo agencies delivered speeches on these topics.

From 2022 to 2025, OANA was chaired by Iran’s IRNA agency.