UPDATE - ‘Traditional media should be made digital’

UPDATES WITH DETAILS OF PANEL DISCUSSIONS

ISTANBUL (AA) – We live in an era where we should transform our traditional media into a digital one, said a senior member of Turkey’s leading Anadolu Agency on Saturday.

In this new era, traditional media must go digital, or otherwise it will disappear, warned Metin Mutanoglu, deputy director general of Turkey’s premier Anadolu Agency, at a panel discussion on traditional media in the digital age during the 27th Association of the Balkan News Agencies – Southeast Europe (ABNA-SE) General Assembly and Conference held in Istanbul.

“We are in a period in which we can do very good journalism by using digital media tools despite the media’s digitization,” Mutanoglu said.

“It is very important to find the truth from amid garbage information and pass the truth on to the people,” he added.

Mutanoglu praised The Washington Post’s coverage of last month’s killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

The Post “published important stories especially in the first two or three weeks [after the killing], and these reports had a big impact on American policy [on the issue],” he said.

“Although the U.S. administration made efforts to bring the incident to a close, they had to address the issue due to U.S. media pressure.”
Washington Post columnist Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi Consulate on Oct. 2 shortly after entering it.

After weeks of denying knowledge of Khashoggi’s fate, Saudi Arabia said he was killed during a botched rendition operation by rogue agents.

The panel was moderated by Michalis Psilos, the head of Greece’s Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANA-MPA), and featured Elmir Huremovic, the general manager of Bosnia's Federal News Agency’s (FENA); Serdar Karagoz of TRT International News Channel; and Armela Krasniqi, the general director of the Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA).

The second panel of the event, concerning new trends and technologies in digital media, was moderated by Yilmaz Yaman, Anadolu Agency’s marketing and corporate communication director. Panelists included Yusuf Ozhan, the editor-in-chief of the Turk Media Digital Group, Ersin Celik, web editor of Yeni Safak daily, and Derrick Fountain, the head of digital products at TRT World.

The third panel focused on the role of digital media during crises. Moderated by Fatih Er, the director of news and programs at TRT World, the panel included Zeina Khodr, senior correspondent of Al Jazeera, Mustafa Kartoglu, Ankara representative of Star daily, and Michalis Psilos, head of the Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANA-MPA).

The last panel focused on “Digital Transformation in News Agencies: Anadolu Agency’s Experience.” Ural Yesil, Anadolu Agency’s International Operations Director moderated the discussion, and panelists included Mustafa Fuat Er, the agency’s new media editor-in-chief, Yakup Sivka, its director of information and communication technologies, and Ahmet Sel, visual news editor in chief.

The ABNA-SE was founded in 1995 with the aim of developing fuller cooperation among news agencies of the region as well as helping to establish a climate of peace, friendship, security and cooperation in the Balkans, according to the group’s website.

During the assembly, Anadolu Agency will take over the ABNA-SE presidency from the Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANA-MPA).

Among the members of the ABNA-SE are AGERPRES (Bucharest), ANA-MPA (Athens), ANADOLU (Ankara), ATA (Tirana), BTA (Sofia), CNA (Nicosia), FENA (Sarajevo), HINA (Zagreb), MIA (Skopje), SRNA (Banja Luka), and TANJUG (Belgrade).

Founded in 1920, Anadolu Agency is a well-established global news agency with operations in most major regions around the globe, including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Asia-Pacific, and serves subscribers in more than 100 countries.

For its subscribers, the agency produces news stories in 13 languages: Turkish, English, Arabic, BHS (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian), Russian, Kurmanji, Sorani, Persian, French, Albanian, Macedonian, Indonesian, and Spanish.