Speaking at the opening of the meeting, the President of FAAPA expressed his satisfaction with the convening of the 8th meeting of the Executive Council of the Pan-African Federation in Dakar, following meetings held in Abidjan, Brazzaville, and Praia, commending the Senegalese News Agency for the choice of the conference theme, namely “the digital transition of African news agencies, urgency and challenges.”
Hachimi Idrissi stressed that “despite the difficult financial context that most African media are facing today, we hope that the Dakar meeting will advocate a common strategy based on the research and development of a new business model for news agencies and closer partnerships to fully play their role in a process of development and innovation, particularly in an era characterized by the emergence of social media and fake news.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has heavily impacted the news sector. African news agencies, like other media, are facing major challenges in terms of strategic choices and work methods affecting their future,” said Hachimi Idrissi.
The FAAPA President also took the opportunity to extend an invitation to all news agencies and in particular African news agencies to take part in the 7th News Agencies World Congress (NAWC), which will be held for the first time in Africa, in Marrakech (Morocco), in November 2022.
For his part, the Director-General of the Senegalese News Agency (APS), Thierno Birahim Fall, stressed the “important role of media diplomacy” that FAAPA plays, noting that “in an international context marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, news agencies face new challenges.”
He added that “the economic and political challenges are related to adaptation, resilience and diversification of supply”, noting that “the various waves of the pandemic have accelerated the waves of transformation of our news agencies.”
The opening session of the meeting was also marked by the speech of Demba Faye, Director of the Cabinet of the Senegalese Minister of Culture and Communication Abdoulaye Diop, who underlined that “the major challenges today, in the digital era, are related to the content and distribution on a large scale, continentally and globally.”
“We can only succeed by resolutely committing ourselves to strong media, media accessible everywhere and to all,” he said.
“We certainly have very dynamic and respectable local media groups, but their production and their audience remain essentially local,” explained Faye in a speech on behalf of the Minister of Culture and Communication, adding that “these media are often limited to collecting and distributing the news beyond borders, because of insufficient human and material resources.”
“To fill this gap, they are forced to resort to foreign sources especially Western ones to feed their programs and news,” he noted.
FAAPA, which currently includes about 20 African news agencies, serves as a professional platform to promote the exchange of experiences and multimedia information and products.
Created on October 14, 2014, the Federation’s objectives are to establish a strategic partnership and develop professional relations between news agencies. It also aims to contribute to the consolidation of the free flow of information and strengthen cooperation and coordination in regional and international fora.
Source: Agency Morocaine De Presse
