6th News Agencies World Congress kicks off in Bulgaria

The Sixth News Agencies World Congress kicked off here on Thursday, bringing together over 200 high-level delegates from nearly 100 countries and regions all over the world.

The three-day event held under the motto "The Future of News" will focus on topics such as ownership models of news agencies, new sources of revenue, fake news and artificial intelligence.

"The theme of the congress for the future of the news is actually the theme of the future of mankind because we can no longer imagine our everyday life without the burgeoning development of technology and without the increasingly dynamic information flow we live in," Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said at the opening ceremony.

Digitization and new technologies have provided enormous opportunities to the news agencies and the media, but at the same time they present immense challenges, Radev said.

"Today, information is the most abundant commodity, but in fact the most deficient," Radev said, adding "we often experience a sharp shortage of timely, objective and credible information."

Maxim Minchev, director general of Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and secretary general of News Agency World Council (NACO), said the world has been changing faster nowadays than ever, and so is news agency reporting.

That is why it was important for news agency leaders to meet and talk to each other, to adjust their watches, discuss problems and accumulate synergies, Minchev said.

Clive Marshall, CEO of the Press Association Group and president of NACO, said that for news agencies it has never been more important to ensure accurate, balanced and objective reporting. "This is the only way to confront those seeking to undermine what we do," he said.

The First News Agencies World Congress was held in Moscow in 2004.