UPDATE - Anadolu draws European agencies' attention on Syria

CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE, ADDS MORE INFORMATION

By Serife Cetin

PRAGUE (AA) - Anadolu Agency called on other European news media organizations to be more sensitive towards the ongoing tragedy in Syria.

A three-day general assembly of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) came to an end on Friday in the Czech capital Prague.

Anadolu Agency editor-in-chief Metin Mutanoglu said in a speech that Syria's northwestern Idlib area was under heavy fire by Bashar al-Assad regime forces and that the region was facing a fresh wave of migrants.

Mutanoglu underlined that though tens of thousands were forced to leave their homes due to regime attacks, the European news media were not interested enough in the issue.

A new migration wave would affect not only Turkey but the rest of Europe as well, he stressed, adding that EANA should thus make a greater effort to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in war-torn country .

Mutanoglu also offered participating agencies to take part in Anadolu Agency's war journalism training.

The event was hosted by the Czech News Agency (CTK) in Prague, with the title "Artificial Intelligence: opportunities, threats and long term perspectives for news agency strategy".

A total of 50 administrators from 27 countries participated the event, including Mutanoglu and Anadolu Agency Europe news editor Yusuf Kaya.

At the general assembly meeting, two new EANA board members were elected, replacing two former members who resigned.

The U.K.'s Press Association Chief Executive Clive Marshall and Albanian News Agency Chief Executive Armela Krasniqi were elected to board membership for three years.

EANA serves as a professional platform to increase cooperation and information exchange between European news agencies by holding conferences each year where problems and future perspectives are discussed.

EANA was founded on Aug. 21, 1956 in conjunction with a conference on new media technology held in Strasbourg, France.

Its founding fathers were Western European news agencies, Anadolu Agency and Tanjug (Yugoslavia). In 1970, agencies behind the so-called "iron curtain" were invited to join.

* Writing by Fatih Hafiz Mehmet in Ankara