prijava
SARAJEVO, June 26 (FENA) - The Federal News Agency FENA has shown and proven to be the leading source of verified information in BiH during the crisis, which justifies its public and professional role in society.
This was said by the director of FENA, Elmir Huremović, who was the host and one of the panelists of the online conference of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), held under the title "Keeping it together in time of crisis ".
Speaking about FENA's experiences at this meeting, he stressed that as a responsible public service, FENA formed a separate column "Coronavirus" at the beginning of the pandemic. All information related to the spread of the epidemic, preventive and epidemiological measures, educating the public, were unlocked and available to the wider public.
"Since the beginning of the pandemic until mid-June this year we published more than 61.000 news pieces in official languages in BiH and in English. Out of that number 11.500 news pieces were published in the 'Coronavirus' column. Our photo and video service held special significance for the media using FENA services and the widest public. We published over 3.000 photo galleries and around 20.000 individual photographs. At the same time, around 2.000 videos were published, mostly about the pandemic," said Huremović.
The already-planned introduction of the live coverage of important events was accelerated by the pandemic. FENA enabled direct live coverage of information given by the Crisis Management Headquarters, government institutions, and other important events to all media outlets and the widest public.
"The majority of events was covered exclusively by FENA to avoid crowds of reporter crews and reduce the possibility of mass infection and transmission of the virus at these events. We did total of 150 lives, including 90 public addresses by the national crisis management headquarters and then shared the links to other media outlets so the official information could reach the widest audience - said Huremović.
During the pandemic, and especially the lockdown period, social media replaced the actual social life, but also became the main source of information for many. Unfortunately, he said, it turned out it also posed fertile ground for spreading fake news about the pandemic and coronavirus.
FENA fought this by increasing its activities on social media and constantly providing its verified information on the coronavirus via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. All of the events within Fena.live were shared on Facebook.
"Every unfortunate event offers a lesson. So thanks to the experience gained from this pandemic we are now more prepared and organized to cope with emergency situations. We are better at using our technological capacities, faster at publishing information, and made multimedia content of FENA more recognizable in BiH and the region and our other channels and projects are more popular than before the pandemic. Most importantly, FENA has shown and proved to be the leading source of verified information in BiH during the crisis, which justifies our public and professional role in society," said the director of FENA Elmir Huremović at the online conference of the European Alliance of News Agencies entitled "Keeping it together in time of crisis."
(FENA) D. J.
