site.btaNew ABNA-SE President Perdikaris: "Balkan News Agencies Will Cooperate in Providing Objective Information"

"The agencies united in the Association of the Balkan News Agencies - Southeast Europe (ABNA-SE) will step up their cooperation in providing objective information and in combating fake news," Aimilios Perdikaris, Director General of the Greek news agency ANA-MPA, said in a BTA interview here on Monday. Perdikaris was elected President of ABNA-SR at the Association's 30th General Assembly earlier in the day.

Asked about the immediate goals of the organization, the interviewee said that "we must gain as much as possible from this cooperation, iron out differences, and leave aside what sets us apart."

"The choice of Thessalonki [as a host] for the next General Assembly is symbolic because Thessaloniki is a city that means a lot for the Balkans at large and not just for Greece in particular," the new ABNA-SE President said. He is confident that Thessalonki can become a hub for the training of journalists from the Balkans and the wider region.

Approached about options for cooperation in combating fake news at the Balkan level, Perdikaris said: "This is a very difficult issue which we confront daily, and we must find effective solutions. A pooling of resources like ABNA-SE definitely prompts us to try to tackle this major problem together." The interviewee added that this is one of the problems in Greece which his news agency is addressing.

Perdikaris also discussed the prospects of setting up a joint Balkan News Room. The idea is to build on this project so that the Balkan news agencies could create a joint news product.

In the opinion of the newly elected ABNA-SE President, the news room could start immediately with topics of interest common to all countries involved, like tourism, economy, business, investment and sports, as well as top newsworthy stories like natural disasters. "All agencies participating in the Association could set up a fast news network to cover major stories. There is also the model of the European news room in Brussels. Certainly, this is something completely different in terms of organization, but I am optimistic that we can achieve this within the framework of the Association and moreover we can do it relatively fast," the ANA-MPA Director General told BTA.