SYDNEY, Feb. 7 -- AsiaNet
The 14 news organisations of the AsiaNet Consortium joined together in
translating and distributing news releases from government, aid agencies and
businesses offering help to victims of the December 26 tsunami.
At the height of the release traffic (December 27 to January 9) 54 media
announcements valued at $US110K were moved — without charge - by AsiaNet within
the Asia Pacific region and also to and from the United States and Europe.
In Asia, the releases were translated and distributed from Pakistan in the
west to New Zealand in the east to thousands of newspapers, TV and radio
stations in a variety of languages, as well as English.
The principal news agencies of the region agreed that it was the least that
could be done immediately for the thousands of people left without food,
water, clothing and shelter — infrastructure of any kind - in widespread areas
of East Asia.
“We were quick to respond to the request made to all the AsiaNet Agencies.
As well as devoting our news resources to the disaster, we were able to give
immediate full text coverage to organisations such as the International Red
Cross, Oxfam, UNICEF and other aid organisations,” Australian Associated Press
(AAP) MediaNet National Business Manager, Sonia Nazaretian said.
AsiaNet General Manager, Mike Worner, said even the agencies directly
affected by the disaster — Antara (Indonesia), Bernama (Malaysia), Infoquest
(Thailand) and Press Trust of India had no hesitation in offering their
services, even though they had to cope with the crisis on their own doorsteps.
“The Consortium, established 10 years ago and consisting of the principal
news agencies of the Asia Pacific (www.asianetnews.net) , also readily combined
its resources after the September 11 terrorist attack in New York and the Bali
nightclub bombing,” Mr Worner said.
As well as being in a position to saturate media — press, radio, TV and
specialist publications - in 35 countries and regions, Mr Worner said that
AsiaNet was also able to tap into a worldwide press distribution network that
included the Americas, Europe, Canada, Africa and the Middle East.
In its day-to-day business operations — delivering and translating full text
(unedited) media releases - many of the largest corporations in the world
entrusted their messages to AsiaNet for pinpoint dissemination.
“While they might not always have immediate news value, they are useful for
backgrounding journalists, educating specialist writers, feature material,
archiving and providing useful contacts in a certain field,” he said.
“Journalists are also able to choose a suitable angle for their own stories,
rather than relying entirely on a condensed and interpreted rewrite of a
release from some other source,” Mr Worner added.
SOURCE: AsiaNet
CONTACT: Ms Sonia Nazaretian
National Business Manager
AAP MediaNet
Tel: +61 2 9322 8128
Email: [email protected]
Mr Mike Worner
AsiaNet
C/O AAP, 9 Lang Street,
Sydney, 2000
Tel: +61 2 9322 8000
Email: [email protected]