Alexandre Rocha, special envoy*
alexandre.rocha@anba.com.br
Cairo – The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce has started negotiating an agreement between ANBA and Egyptian news agency MENA. Yesterday (03) the marketing vice president at the organization, Rubens Hannun, met in Cairo with the president and editor-in-chief at MENA, Abdalla Hassan, and with the assistant editor-in-chief, Mustafa Samih Elewa. He was accompanied by an ANBA news reporter, and by the agency’s correspondent in Cairo, Randa Achmawi. The objective is the exchange of journalistic material, the exchange of journalists, institutional support and the expansion of the flow of information between Brazil and the Arab world.
MENA, which belongs to the Egyptian government, covers general affairs, including politics, economy, sports, archaeological discoveries, international and scientific research, like, for example, the medical area. The agency has correspondents in 28 countries, based in cities like New York, Paris, London, Geneva, Berlin, Beijing, Moscow and Islamabad, most of the Arab capitals and several African ones. “But unfortunately we do not have anyone in Latin America,” stated Hassan. “And it would be good to have someone where we have never been,” he added.
In this respect, he wants the support of the Arab Brazilian Chamber to find in Brazil a journalist who writes and speaks Arabic fluently. Hassan is also interested in agreements with official agencies, which, in the case of Brazil, would be Radiobras, and with private press organizations. Hannun pointed out that apart from the ANBA material, the Arab Brazilian Chamber may offer information about the Brazilian economy, about the country’s foreign trade and relations with the Arab world.
The Egyptian agency has 1,100 employees, being 400 journalists. It produces, according to Hassan, around 750 news articles in Arabic each day, with 250 translated into English and French. Apart from the texts, MENA also makes available multimedia material that includes text and photographs, as well as an international economy bulletin.
Established in 1956, the agency currently has a file of 3 million photographs that are being digitalized. “It is a true treasure,” stated Hassan.
MENA supplies part of its material, around 40 articles a day, freely to partner agencies, but charges for access to further content, as this is its source of income. The organization may also produce articles and studies at the partner’s request.
Hannun handed to Hassan minutes of the agreement, which will be analysed by the Egyptian agency. ANBA currently has similar agreements with the official news agencies of the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Syria, Yemen, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.
*Translated by Mark Ament
