Official visit of the EANA Bureau members to the IEPF Headquarter office

Representatives members of the Bureau of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), Mr. Vince Matyas who is also the president of the Hungarian Information Agency (MTI) and Erik Nylen the secretary of the Bureau came on an official call at the headquarter office of International Eurasia Press Fund (IEPF) on the 17th of March, 2008.

The meeting was scheduled as a national media assessment prompted because of the interest of the state Information Agency (AzerTac), one of the Azerbaijan leading news agencies in Azerbaijan, in joining the EANA.

Mr. Umud Mirzoyev, the chairman of IEPF reminded Mr. Vince Matyas of their past meetings at one of the world congress of the International Press Institute (IPI). The highpoint of their first meeting was subject on the need to seek assistance and advice from the Hungarian media perspective in the high profile case of Ramil Safarov who is serving terms in Hungary.

The Chairman of IEPF also took the opportunity to throw more lights on the media situations; the role of media organizations and NGOs in promoting good journalism practice in Azerbaijan. He also elaborated more on AzerTac activities and the possibilities of AzerTac expanding the EANA to give it a south Caucasus representation. Finally, Mr Umud Mirzoyev also envisages an upward growth in media activities because according to him, with the series of line-up events on media coupled with government new approach to the media, practicing professional journalism is attainable in Azerbaijan.

IEPF has proposed to host the 2009 world congress of the IPI, therefore the Chairman of IEPF also seized the opportunity to inform the EANA boards of this intention and the progress made so far. He hinted them of government full support of the initiative and how the event will add positively to the growth of media in Azerbaijan.

Mr vince Matyas highly welcomed the idea of Azerbaijan hosting the next IPI world congress. He even extended a likely possibility of hosting the EANA congress immediately after the IPI world congress although he didn’t fail to state the fact that most of the EANA meetings has always been held in Switzerland, the EANA headquarter location.

The visiting EANA Bureau members were equally interested in various roles of other prominent media organizations. There were commendable responses from the chairman of IEPF and the Director General of the AzerTac, Mr. Aslan Aslanov.

EANA is a European media body comprising of agencies with common platform on key issues such as copyright, tariff policy, technology and access to source of information. The major objectives of EANA are: to secure a business environment where news agencies can fulfil the task of independent and unbiased news reporting; to promote co-operation and information exchange between member agencies; to offer member agencies a Pan-European professional forum for discussions and exchange of experiences and know-how by organizing seminars, workshops, etc.