After the presentation of the activities of the Alliance under the current mandate, participants in this meeting adopted the 2021 moral and financial reports and entrusted to the Croatian News Agency HINA the presidency of AMAN for the period 2022-2023.
This presidency is established in the person of HINA Director General Branka-Gabriela Vojvodić. Participants also unanimously re-elected George Penintaex (Cyprus) as Secretary General of the Alliance for three years (2022-2025).
The members of the Alliance have approved the organization of the next editions of AMAN in Tunis in 2023 and in Rome in 2024, the representatives of the two agencies of the Mediterranean, Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) and Italy’s Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) wished to host successively the next editions of AMAN.
The work of this 30th General Assembly has also seen the adoption of the “Dubrovnik Declaration” at the end of the conference organized on Tuesday on the sidelines of this Assembly, by the Croatian News Agency (Hina), on sustainable development in the Mediterranean and was chaired by Nina Obuljen Korzinek, Croatian Minister of Culture and Media.
This declaration contains “the commitment of the Mediterranean news agencies to assume full responsibility for their actions in defending and promoting sustainable development worldwide, especially in the Mediterranean region.
The agencies recognize, through this declaration, “the crucial importance of the role of the media in the process of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda and express their commitment to fulfill their social role for which they are fully responsible at national and local levels”.
The Dubrovnik Declaration recognizes the extent of the responsibility of news agencies in their social role of informing, objectively and impartially, and the need for them to be open to cross-sector partnerships in order to best fulfill their professional and moral mission and thus contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the ESG Agenda, in the private and public sectors, as well as in civil society.
The agencies are committed to coordinating their efforts in their own national environments to initiate dialogue and foster such partnerships and networks, knowing that only coordinated efforts can bring about the change needed to ensure a safer future for generations to come.
The closing of this conclave was marked by the awarding of prizes for the best article, awarded to Imad Aldaghly, journalist at the Syrian news agency (SANA) and the best photo, won by Miguel Carlo of the Spanish agency (EFE).
Founded in Tunis in 1991, AMAN has 19 news agencies in addition to observer members including the Atlantic Federation of African News Agencies (FAAPA). MAP was represented at this general assembly by Rachid Tijani, Director of Communication and Cooperation.