The General Assembly of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), hosted by the Saudi Press Agency SPA) on January 11-12, 2022, concluded the meetings of its 48th Conference here today. The conference was attended by the news agencies of Jordan, UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iraq, Mauritania, Yemen, Qatar, Tunisia, Palestine and Libya, and a representative of the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for Arab States. At the conclusion of the conference, the participants expressed their thanks and appreciation to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and HRH Crown Prince for hosting FANA 48th Conference, wishing it further progress and prosperity. The heads of FANA's member agencies affirmed the continuation of work and development in line with the changes of the times, especially in the field of media, where a committee was formed to develop FANA and enable it to implement the activities to be decided each year by the General Assembly under the chairmanship of Palestine and the membership of the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Libya and Lebanon. The General Assembly discussed the proposal submitted by the Minister and General Supervisor of the Palestinian Official Media Ahmed Najib Assaf, regarding the global platforms' handling of the content published by Arab news agencies through these platforms and their interference in blocking some of what is published by the agencies, especially with regard to the just Palestinian cause. Follow-up to prepare a memorandum in this regard and send it to the Media Department of the Arab League in preparation for submitting it to the Arab Ministers of Media in the 52nd session, which is scheduled to be held in the middle of current year 2022. Topics of cooperation between FANA and the Media Department of Arab League were also discussed, and the need to qualitatively intensify news exchange with non-Arab countries and institutions, and to participate in the meetings of the News Agencies World Council (NACO) as FANA is one of its members as well as in the World Media Congress that will be held in Abu Dhabi next November based on an initiative from Emirates News Agency (WAM), and the necessity of holding a symposium on the future of Arab news agencies, the elements of continuity and quality challenges, and cooperation with the College of Economics and Political Science at the University of London in order to prepare a study on the future of Arab national news agencies. In the field of training employees of news agencies, it has been approved to hold several training workshops for editors and photographers of member agencies. FANA General Assembly also stressed the need to focus on the practical aspects of these courses, and to hold specialized courses to develop current competencies as well as other courses related to senior staff of agencies in order to enable them to know what is happening in the field of technological progress and informatics, in addition to approving the holding of several workshops and seminars at the Training Center for News Agencies Journalism of FANA in the Jordanian capital, Amman, in the field of technological and informatics progress. Also, the General Assembly appreciated the role played by the General Secretariat in the international forums of news agencies, in addition to the role played by the General Secretariat of FANA in the international conferences of news agencies held since 2005, and also approved the continuation of work for the next year in the economic file (The Consolidated Economic Bulletin), the cultural file, the health file and the women's media service reports, in addition to the discussion of their development by the committee formed by FANA General Assembly. Concerning the technical affairs and updating the (Fana News) website, the General Assembly decided to return to the method whereby Arab agencies broadcast their news or any number of them daily on the website using the available technical means, which will contribute to the development of the website. FANA General Assembly also approved the Federation's budget for 2022 and to hold the 49th session of the General Assembly Conference in Abu Dhabi in conjunction with the convening of the World Congress on 15-17 November 2022.
