Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's key news service, is moving to join an association of 18 news agencies from advanced Western countries, as part of efforts to further upgrade its multimedia news service and exchange, Yonhap's visiting president said.
Park Jung-chan, president and CEO of Yonhap News Agency, who is visiting Bariloche, Argentina, to attend the third News Agencies World Congress, met Thursday with Malte von Trotha, president and CEO of the German news agency DPA, to discuss the South Korean news provider's membership in Mobile Information and News Data Services (MINDS) International.
DPA is a key member of MINDS International, which was founded by 11 European and U.S. news agencies in 2007 as a research and development unit for innovations in the field of digital information and communication solutions for the media industry. MINDS International, which now claims 18 members, also supports technology exchanges between the agencies.
Park said that Yonhap's membership in MINDS International is expected to be approved at the organization's annual conference scheduled for next March in London.
"Yonhap News will be given an opportunity to join MINDS International at its annual conference in London next year," Park said after his meeting with Trotha.
"Yonhap, if admitted to MINDS International, will more actively expand its exchanges not only with news agencies in Europe but also with the
world's leading news services in other regions," said Park.
Trotha expressed expectations for Yonhap's entry into MINDS International, saying that he is convinced that member companies' exchanges
with Yonhap will be mutually beneficial. Trotha noted that he personally witnessed Yonhap's outstanding capabilities in the production of multimedia news content during his attendance in the OANA Summit Congress in Seoul in April.
Park and Trotha are among the representatives of 76 news agencies worldwide, who gathered in this Argentine resort city to open the five-day
News Agencies World Congress Tuesday. They have been discussing the main challenges posed by new technology to their operations under the theme "The Main Tendency of News Agencies: Staying Effective," according to Park's aides.
Meanwhile, Park held separate talks with Suleyman Hilmi Bengi, director general of Turkey's Anatolia News Agency, to discuss expanding bilateral video news exchanges, said the aides. Yonhap and Anatolia signed an MOU on
the exchange of video news content last year and the exchange began this August.