Skopje, 30 September 2023 (MIA) — In the presence of government ministers, lawmakers, diplomats and representatives of institutions, the Media Information Agency celebrated its 25th anniversary at a reception held on Friday evening.

 

Attendees included Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Good Governance Policies Slavica Grkovska, Minister of Interior Oliver Spasovski, Minister of Finance Fatmir Besimi, Members of Parliament from the ranks of SDSM, VMRO-DPMNE, and DUI as well as delegations of foreign embassies to the country.

 

MIA's general director Dragan Antonovski said in his welcoming speech that MIA's accurate, fact-checked news was highly respected even beyond the country's borders. He added that the news agency was a bulwark in the fight against misinformation.

 

"I am proud of the fact that we are here together celebrating a quarter of a century of existence," Antonovski said, welcoming MIA's first employee together with the agency's founders, former and current staff as well as the agency's subscribers, friends, and supporters.

 

 

"We have introduced significant reforms," he continued. "A new organizational structure, our first collective agreement, our first record earnings from subscriptions. We have doubled our news output and we are keeping pace with new multimedia challenges.

 

"We are proud that our media products are used without hesitation both in the country and the region, which is why our journalists have garnered awards from the media community.

 

"Our video approach has completely changed. We now have live broadcasts from events. We also give our contribution through our agency's school and our editors' participation in media literacy projects and the fight against fake news," Antonovski said, adding that MIA's success was thanks to its staff who over the past 25 years had given and continued to give their personal contribution to MIA's development.

 

 

According to Antonovski, the next step in the agency's development would be for a Law on MIA to be adopted.

 

The new law is expected to contribute to the agency's financial stability and predictability as well as its independence and sustainability.

 

"For this goal, we have the support of the OSCE and other international and domestic media organizations," he said.

 

 

Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, leaders of political parties as well as institutions and partner agencies sent MIA their best wishes on the agency's 25th anniversary.

 

The national news agency released its first news item on Sept. 30, 1998, beginning its production and distribution of news and photos.

 

In recent years, it has built a strong social media presence and has also added multimedia and live streaming to its news products.

 

 

"Our international and regional cooperation is constantly growing," Antonovski said, noting that MIA was part of the European Newsroom in Brussels together with AFP, DPA and most regional agencies.

 

"We have worked on joint projects with BTA, STA, BETA, ANA MPA, with KOSOVAPRESS and MINA. Soon, the Balkan newsroom website will be launched by the ABNA network, which MIA received support to preside over as of next year," he said.

 

 

MIA's subscriber base includes traditional and digital media as well as diplomatic missions, international organizations and institutions.

 

The MIA newsroom produces and distributes about 400 news and other media products per day in Macedonian, English, and Albanian.

 

It also offers special wires on different topics, daily and weekly bulletins, a photo service, and a video service with a live stream from events at www.mia.mk and the news agency's social media.

 

MIA is a member of the Association of Southeast European News Agencies ABNA and MIA’s services are used by Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe, and Voice of America.

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It is also part of the information pools of AGERPRES (Romania), BTA (Bulgaria), ATA (Albania), TANJUG (Serbia), MINA (Montenegro), FENA and SRNA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), STA (Slovenia), HINA (Croatia), ANA-MPA (Greece), ANADOLU AGENCY (Turkey), APA (Austria), EFE (Spain), and UKRINFORM (Ukraine). MIA also cooperates with the European Pressphoto Agency EPA, dpa (Germany), BBC (UK), Xinhua (China), IRNA (Iran), and Yonhap (Korea).

 

MIA also participates in the European Newsroom, a recent cooperation project between news agencies from all over Europe – AFP, AGERPRES, ANSA, APA, ATA, Belga, BTA, dpa, EFE, Europa Press, FENA, HINA, MIA, PAP, STA, Tanjug, TASR and UKRINFORM. The participating agencies have opportunities for training, further education and the joint development of journalistic standards. mr/