The 48th General Assembly conference of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), hosted by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), kicked off on 11 January 2022, in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
The two-day general assembly elected SPA President Fahd bin Hassan Al Aqran as the President of FANA, with the participation of board chairmen, editors-in-chief, and directors of FANA member agencies. Besides the president, two vice presidents, the general secretary, and members of the general secretariat were also elected. Agencies which won awards for best reporting and best photography were also announced.
President Al Aqran welcomed the participants to the conference, expressing his pride in the confidence exuded by FANA members as a motivation to move forward to develop the federation’s role in serving the Arab media and enhancing its media presence internationally.
Under SPA’s theme ‘The Role of a News Agency in Addressing Fake News’, Ahmed Al Hammadi, Executive Director of the Support Services Sector at the Abu Dhabi-based Emirates News Agency (WAM) – the official news agency of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – highlighted WAM’s keen interest to enhance cooperation between the members of the federation and achieve their shared goals by driving the development of Arab media content.
The participants in the conference discussed various items on the agenda, including the federation’s role in organizing professional work ethics, ways to enhance media performance of FANA member agencies and improving their presence on the international media scenario, in addition to reviewing the federation’s activities during the past year and its plans for 2022.
