Alexandre Rocha, special envoy*
alexandre.rocha@anba.com.br
Rabat – ANBA now has one more source of information in the Arab world. Recently, Antonio Sarkis Jr., the president at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, to which the agency belongs, signed a material exchange agreement with Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP), a news agency connected to the Moroccan government. Yesterday (28), the marketing vice president at the Chamber, Rubens Hannun, visited the MAP offices in Rabat, the Moroccan capital, accompanied by an ANBA staff reporter.
He was met by the foreign relations director at MAP, Rachid Tijani, by the head of the cooperation service at the agency, Mohamed Tahlaoui, and by the head of the public relations service, Driss Lamrini. "Our information supplies papers, radio stations, television channels, foreign embassies here and Moroccan embassies abroad," stated Tijani.
Established in 1959, the agency produces daily news in Arabic, French, English and Spanish and also has information sites in Japanese, Chinese and Korean. The company has 671 employees, being 300 journalists. The agency covers general matters like politics, economics, sports, culture and international news, among others.
International activities are among the MAP strong points. MAP has branches in 21 capitals around the world: Algiers, Tunis, Cairo, Beirut, Rome, Moscow, Geneva, Paris, London, Lisbon, Washington, Beijing, Brussels, Dakar, Madrid, Montreal, Nairobi, New Delhi, Nouakchott and Riyadh, as well as correspondents in Abu Dhabi, Addis Ababa, Ankara, Amman, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Damascus, Doha, Johannesburg, Las Palmas, Mexico City, New York, Tehran, Tokyo and Tripoli.
"All the correspondents are Moroccan, to produce international news under the Moroccan perspective," stated Tijani. The journalists who operate abroad, according to him, stay in specific countries for four years, then they return to the head offices, to promote rotation. The correspondents are chosen through a competition.
Apart from that, it is usual for the agency to promote exchange of journalists. As an example he mentioned a group of journalists from Mauritania who spent a period at MAP to learn more about election coverage. "The exchange permits the consolidation of contact," stated Tijani. MAP has agreements for cooperation with another 60 news agencies.
In this respect, Hannun and Tijani pointed out the importance of the agreement with ANBA as a way to obtain direct information, without intermediaries. Starting now, MAP will publish ANBA articles and vice-versa. With this agreement, the number of Arab news agencies with which ANBA has partnerships rises to seven.
*Translated by Mark Ament
