Media Summit in Seoul to Address Digital Revolution
By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
Chief executives of leading news agencies from the Asia-Pacific region, as well as Europe, the Middle East and Africa gathered in Seoul Wednesday for a global media summit aimed at boosting multilateral cooperation in coping with the challenges posed by digital media revolution.
Under the theme ``Challenges and Opportunities for News Agencies,'' the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) Summit Congress will run through Saturday at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul.
The conference, which coincides with celebrations marking the 30th founding anniversary of Yonhap News, is the largest official event in the history of OANA, which was formed in 1961 under the initiative of UNESCO to promote regional news exchanges.
``Asia-Pacific news industry leaders will have a rare chance to exchange their views on how to expand cooperative exchanges among regional newswire services, particularly in the face of the rapidly changing media industry environment characterized by the digital revolution,'' Yonhap President and CEO Park Jung-chan said.
``The OANA Summit Congress in Seoul is particularly meaningful, as South Korea will host the G-20 Summit this November. Yonhap will take the OANA meeting as an opportunity to promote the summit among regional news agencies,'' said Park.
Some 90 CEOs and representatives of 44 newswire companies from 35 countries worldwide are taking part in the four-day conference, which is co-hosted by Yonhap and OANA.
They include those from the organizations 41 member companies from 33 countries and heads of various newswire associations.
North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, a member of OANA, failed to respond to an invitation to attend the conference.
The Seoul summit marked the first gathering of nearly all the CEOs from OANA's members to discuss a single topic.
Ahead of the official opening ceremony slated for today, delegates attended a welcome reception jointly hosted by Park and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon.
Following the opening ceremony, Professor Oliver Boyd-Barrett of Bowling Green State University in the United States, and Prof. Kang Nam-jun of Seoul National University will separately give keynote speeches under the titles of ``Survival Strategies for News Agencies Facing the New Media'' and the ``Future of News Agencies,'' respectively.
According to OANA representatives, delegates to the conference will also discuss ways to ensure that news from Asia is delivered to a global audience from an Asian perspective.
At the closing of the meeting, participants will adopt a joint declaration on their intention to widen cooperative relations and exchanges among member companies, particularly in the field of new media content.
Participants will also have an opportunity to tour South Korea's major industrial and tourist sites.
On the sidelines of the conference, Yonhap and other OANA members will display a collection of photos taken by Asia-Pacific photo journalists over the past decade in the lobby of the Lotte Hotel.
Participants in the Seoul summit include representatives from China's Xinhua News Agency, Japan's Kyodo News, the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia (Itar-Tass), the Australian Associated Press and Indonesia's Antara News.
Representatives from the Federation of Arab News Agencies, the European Alliance of Press Agencies, the Association of Balkan News Agencies and the Alliance of Mediterranean News Agencies are also attending the meeting as observers.