TOKYO
Anadolu Agency Executive Board Chairman and Director General Kemal Ozturk visited on Wednesday Japan's leading news agencies and TV channels in Tokyo on the sidelines of the Organization of Asia Pacific News Agencies (OANA) Executive Board Meeting in Tokyo.
In the meeting Ozturk held with the head of one of Japan's leading newspapers, established in the 1870s with a circulation of 5.6 million, he gave information to Mainichi Shimbun President Yutaka Asahina about Anadolu Agency's centennial vision, publications and its regional influence.
Ozturk emphasized Anadolu Agency is the leading news provider in the Middle East and Balkans and produces one thousand news on average daily. He also said AA was already broadcasting in five languages, Arabic, Bosnian, Russian, English and Turkish, and publishing very important photos from war and crisis zones.
Ozturk mentioned about AA's worldwide operations, in specific Middle East, to Japanese media's senior executives and emphasized that AA could provide many services in particular, news and photographs to the Japanese media.
-AA provides Japanese media an alternative route-
In the talks with Japanese leading media directors Ozturk said there was no healthy relationship between the Turkish and Japanese media in the past, however, Anadolu Agency would build a bridge between Turkey and Japanese media and provide an alternative route for the news transferred from the West.
-Japanese media should pay more attention to the Middle East-
In his talks with Tadakazu Kimura, President of Asahi Shimbun newspaper with a circulation of nearly 10 million, Ozturk reminded Anadolu Agency is in the tenth place in the world and gave information about the new works AA is conducting. They also discussed social media's influence and Ozturk talked about AA's works in the social media.
Following the newspaper visits, Ozturk went to one of Japan's leading TV institutions, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS), and received information regarding the channel's broadcasts.
Ozturk said, "As the Anadolu Agency, we are the biggest news provider of the region. AA is influential not only in Turkey but also in a wide geography from Beirut to Morocco." He also gave information to the TBS president regarding Anadolu Agency's centennial vision and its target of becoming in the top five agencies in the world by 2020.
