EANA as Professional Organization

The European Alliance of Press Agencies has decided to change its name to European Alliance of News Agencies. The new name including new statutes for the organization were approved at an Extra General Assembly in Cracow, Poland on June 11, 2002. The organization was founded in 1956 and comprises 28 European news agencies.

The assembly also decided that the organization shall be registered in Berne, Switzerland as a non-profit membership association.

The purpose of EANA is to safeguard and promote the common interests of its members in all areas. It serves as a Pan-European professional forum for the establishment of contacts and co-operation as well as exchange of information and experiences and know-how among its members.

"When the organization was founded almost 50 years ago, it was probably correct to call the members press agencies but today it is more correct to describe the members as news agencies serving a variety of media and non-media clients," says EANA'spresident Andreas Christodoulides, general director of Athens News Agency adding that news agencies in many cases today are developing multimedia services.

"Changing the name and having the EANA registered as a non-profit membership association in Berne is one of many steps taken in our work to further develop EANA as a professional organization for European news agencies," Mr Christodoulides says.

The EANA'sannual general assembly is held in Geneva on September 27, 2002 with a seminar for its members on September 26.

For more information, please contact the EANA secretariat
e-mail: erik-n@telia.com
tel/fax: +46 8 301324
mobile: +46 739 865272

website: www.pressalliance.com