First meeting of Union of Latin American News Agencies takes place in Ecuador http://www.avn.info.ve/node/75061

The first meeting of the Union of Latin American News Agencies (ULAN, in Spanish) was inaugurated this Wednesday in Quito, Ecuador.The new organization, created three months ago in Venezuela, is made out of nine public news agencies of the region aimed at sharing information, support each other, train journalists and break with the hegemony held by big private groups.

The Summit in Quito is scheduled to end on Thursday with a public conference called “Freedom of Expression”.On Wednesday, the representatives of the nine agencies will debate over ULAN"s international relations, its own website, proposals for strengthening the organ and mutual cooperation.Regarding the creation of the institution, the Director of the Paraguayan IP, Carlos Troya, explained that it will be useful to complement and cover events in the countries of the region without the necessity of sending special correspondents.

Moreover, he underscored that ULAN"s importance lies in the fact that “traditional press has become in companies protecting their own interests, and the interest of businesspeople is not necessarily the same than population.” Communications ministers from Ecuador and Uruguay will also be present at the encounter.The ULAN is composed of Telam (Argentina), AVN (Venezuela), Notimex (Mexico), Prensa Latina (Cuba), EBC (Brazil), IP (Paraguay), AGN (Guatemala), ABI (Bolivia), and ANDES (Ecuador), which as in charge of organizing the event.

Private media more dangerous for what they hide than for what they say http://www.avn.info.ve/node/75261

“Big private media are often more dangerous for what they hide than for what they say,” pointed out this Thursday the president of the Union of Latin American News Agencies (ULAN), Sergio Fernandez.During the first formal meeting of the ULAN ending this Thursday, Fernandez underscored that freedom of expression “is an euphemism used by some companies to defend whatever they want to.”In this regard, he stressed that regulating media and defining journalists" responsibilities “does not mean to restrict freedom of expression.

”In view of the growth of information in current society, people have to learn “to decode messages,” he added.Freddy Fernandez, vice-president of the Executive Council of the ULAN, said: “The debate on freedom of expression has been originated by the deep changes taking pace in the continent.”

Fernandez, also Director of the Venezuelan News Agency (AVN), reiterated the leading role of people on the discussion about exercising journalism and stressed that democratizing societies implies democratization of media.“There can be no freedom giving the right to anyone to humiliate or harass anybody else,” Fernandez stated.The ULAN is composed of nine Latin American news agencies: Telam (Argentina), AVN (Venezuela), Notimex (Mexico), Prensa Latina (Cuba), EBC (Brazil), IP (Paraguay), ABI (Bolivia), AGN (Guatemala) and ANDES (Ecuador).