The UAE was selected by the 16th General Assembly of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies, OANA, to be a member of OANA's committee of professional ethics during a meeting held yesterday in Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku.

The city also hosted the 5th News Agencies World Congress yesterday, bringing together 180 delegates representing state and non-state news agencies from across the world.

Commenting on the media achievement, Mohammad Jalal Al Rayssi, Executive Director of Emirates News Agency, WAM, expressed the UAE's gratitude to Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani national news and information agency, Azertag, for hosting the world’s influential media organisations and for the warm reception.

''The presence of the UAE in OANA's committee of code of ethics underscores OANA's confidence in and appreciation of WAM's prominent status,'' he said.

In his opening address at the joint event, President Ilham Aliyev spoke about the media’s openness his country was witnessing and also affirmed Baku's support for initiatives to promote openness and peaceful co-existence and its efforts to denounce violence and extremism.

The General Assembly of OANA decided that South Korea state news agency, YONHAB, would host the 17th meeting in 2019.

AZERTAC Director-General Aslan Aslanov assumed the three-year presidency of OANA at the organisation`s 16th General Assembly in Baku. ZERTAC has taken over the presidency of OANA from Russian TASS agency. AZERTAC will be responsible for managing the website of the organisation and other organisational issues.

AZERTAC is one of the active members of OANA as the agency's contribution to the organisation`s website includes around 4,000 news, more than 700 video and over 1,600 photo items on a yearly basis.

An initiative of UNESCO, the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies was founded in 1961 with the aim of expanding news exchange among regional news agencies. OANA`s members include 43 news agencies from 35 countries.

The senior international correspondent and the news agency’s representative to Germany Vugar Seidov was elected as new secretary general of OANA by consensus of the general assembly.

The organisation also elected new members of the Executive Board.