Anadolu Agency is proceeding rapidly towards its centennial goals for the year of 2020, AA Director-General and Board Chairman Kemal Ozturk said Saturday during the agency's performance assessment meeting in Bolu province.
"We have a responsibility and it is not just related with producing news," said Ozturk and stessed that the agency made headway faster than he expected in two and a half years for reaching its goal of "becoming one of the five most influential news agencies in the world by 2020."
As part of its centennial vision, AA plans to broadcast in 11 languages by 2020. The agency currently broadcasts in Turkish, Arabic, English, Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian, Russian, Kurdish, and French.
Touching on the agency's active presence in the Middle East, Balkans and Caucasia, Ozturk said, "The news reported in these regions constitute 60 percent of news stream in the world. If we maintain a strong coverage from these regions, we will dominate the news stream in the world."
Ozturk also praised Arabic department of the agency and said their efforts made great contributions to the agency.
"Anadolu Agency influences Europe and America with the power it generates from the Middle East, the Balkans and Caucasia," he said.
In his remarks to the AA staff at the meeting, Ozturk said AA photoghraphs are frequently featured in global media. He said: "International newspapers and websites have used AA photographs for their stories about incidents in Iraq's Mosul."
"Many American and European newspapers have begun using AA photographs and videos from Mosul as they cannot enter there, but they also prefer our photographs taken in Brazil, which shows our quality," he said.
Ozturk called the publication of an AA photograph that shows U.S. President Barack Obama's speech in Washington on The Time journal as a "milestone" for the agency.
AA has begun marketing its photos with broader global coverage thanks to an agreement signed with Getty Images in March, in addition to those with other leading photo agencies such as AFP Imageforum, DPA, Scanpix, Contacto and VI Images.
AA is already a well-established global news agency offering newswires in seven languages with operations spreading across major regions around the globe, including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Asia-Pacific, and serves business customers in more than 100 countries and is the first place creative and media professionals turn to discover, purchase and manage images and other digital content.
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