ATA General Director asked the commission to support one of the main priorities of the institution as is digitization of the photo archive and news bulletins.

“ATA is the only Albanian informative entity, whose mission is to disseminate news that have been checked with authentic and official sources, without making any comments and distortions sticking to the principle of accuracy and impartiality,” said Zhupa.

“A large chunk of the news items is translated into two foreign languages, respectively English and French, which is an important tool of the agency to keep international public opinion informed on latest developments in Albania. Following the model of prestigious world agencies, we aim to play the role of contributor through the news, disseminating information about laws, legal acts on investments, the Albanian capital market, tourist resources etc, ” – Zhupa said.

Zhupa added that “ATA broadcasts news from the world or region received from partner agencies with which we have signed memoranda of understanding such as the prestigious German news agency, DPA, French agency, AFP, Italian news agency, ANSA, or well-known regional agencies, the Turkish Anadolu Agency, Greek news agency, ANA-MPA, Bulgarian BTA, Romanian AGEPRES, others.

Zhupa said that “we see our news wherever we click. About 70% of ATA news is regularly pirated by various newspapers and portals, removing the logo and passing them off as their news, which is a real handicap for us. ”

The director of ATA said that “we aim to turn ATA into a public news agency, responding to the demands of the market today and the technology that is advancing every day. Our website offers video news service, easily accessible but also comprehensive and eye catching for the reader, offering information according to the standards. ”

In her remarks, the director of ATA put the emphasis on digitalization of the photo archive. An important direction of our work has been and remains the digitalization of the ATA archive. The archive includes about 250 thousand photos, photographic negatives and news bulletins,” Zhupa said, asking the Media Committee to provide additional budget for digitalization which is a priority for the time being.

The Commission highly appreciated the work of ATA as well as the archive, expressing support for this important process designed to restore the ATA archive as a part of historical and visual memory of the country. The members of the commission fully supported the vision of ATA and its objectives.

The discussion during the presentation of the 2022 budget for ATA focused on increase of fees for the sale of the archive photos.

Opposition and majority MPs agreed to make a request to the Ministry of Finance for a review of the fees which have been adopted in 1992 and are not in line with market pricing.
/sm/