site.btaBTA Director General Valchev Addresses 18th OANA General Assembly

News agencies allow people from around the world to compare, said BTA Director General and News Agencies World Congress President Kiril Valchev in his address at the 18th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia - Pacific News Agencies (OANA) in Tehran on Tuesday. "Knowing each other is not only a chance to benefit from each other's good practices, but also a guarantee for peace," Valchev said.

Valchev emphasized that in its 125-year history, BTA has always been dedicated to the right of people to know more about each other.

Four years ago, BTA organized the world congress of news agencies on the future of news. The BTA Director General spoke about the responsible approach to the mission of finding the best solution for informing the public through news agencies.

The address focused on the battle between real news and fake news. According to Valchev, prohibitions on media and the internet could never have lasting effects.

Valchev called for achieving balance between information as a human right and information for sale on the market, because every human has a right to knowledge, education, and free unlimited access to information, no matter their age, gender, or religion.

It is the new agencies' duty to help the public not "drown" in the ocean of news, said Valchev. He believes that the best way to do that is to publish more science-related news.

"We have to continue to provide facts before evaluations because this is the standard of real news agencies," said Valchev.

Earlier Tuesday, delegations attending the OANA congress met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Today, 43 news agencies from 20 countries are members of OANA.

The Congress elected a new country chair, Iran, as host of the forum. The newly elected co-chairs included South Korea, Russia, Azerbaijan, China, and Turkiye.

Moscow will be the next host of the OANA forum in 2025, after Russia defeated the other contender, China, with 16 votes to 6.

At the end of the forum, the participants adopted a final declaration.