Head of AA: Challenging year ahead of Anadolu Agency

Director General and Chairman of the Board Kemal Ozturk said on Sunday that journalism is a risky profession and AA has a lot to do in 2014, considering the covering of two critical elections ahead this year, which will shape the country’s future in years to come. Addressing AA editors and publishers at the closing of AA  2014 Planning Meeting held in Turkey's western province of Afyon, Ozturk stated there is high expectation fromAA such as requests made by hundreds of people for AA to do live broadcasting from Hamburg or to cover any incident in South Africa. Reminding that such demand had not been met in the past, Ozturk said these are righteous claims because AA set such objectives and gave correct information without any manipulation or disinformation. “We shall always see the glass as half full and act accordingly. Problems can be solved by a positive approach. I ask my deputy managers to let directors, managers and editors to take more initiative. Let them make mistakes. If people are too focused on not making any mistake, then they can’t produce anything” said Ozturk. After the closing speech of Ozturk, AA has chosen its slogan for 2014 as "GlobAAl2014" among many suggestions. Also delivering a speech, Anadolu Agency’s Deputy Director General and Editor Omer Eksi said that AA will improve the quality of news articles, preserving the numbers that has been reached in the previous year. Emphasizing the 110 percent increase in the news production of AA in comparison to 2011, Eksi noted all employees had a share in this success. Each department then provided information regarding their activities and performance in 2013 and goals for 2014.