MCOT’s Thai News Agency (TNA) on Tuesday signed a cooperation agreement with Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) to strengthen long-standing ties under the network of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA).
The signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the bilateral cooperation between the two news agencies was held at MCOT headquarters in Bangkok.
The MoU was signed by MCOT Acting President Sirote Ratanamahatana and Iranian Ambassador to Thailand Seyed Reza Nobakhti.
The Iranian ambassador said the MoU is very important. Under the MoU, the two agencies can exchange news about each nation and get access to real information from both nations.
Apart from new reports from western media, TNA can now access to Iranian sources to see what the reality is and can report stories from both sides, so people can judge.
“I think through this MoU, people will know each other better and better,” he said.
The MoU covers various fields of cooperation including exchanges of news and personnel visits.
The two news agencies signed their first MoU on news cooperation in 1999. This new agreement will expand their cooperation and improve the MoU content to align with changing media landscape for the mutual benefit.
Both TNA and IRNA are members of OANA, which was established in 1961 under the initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Currently, OANA members comprise 44 news agencies from 35 countries.
Regarding cooperation between Iran and Thailand, the ambassador said before Covid-19, about 100,000 Iranian tourists visited Thailand each year and Iran plans to increase the tourist number to Thailand when the Covid-19 situation improves.
Besides tourism and trade, he is optimistic about future cooperation with Thailand in other fields. (TNA)
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