Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire to lead wire service revolution

The Ghana News Agency (GNA) and the Agence Ivorienne De Presse (AIP) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to exchange news in both English and French, photo services and other news products for publication in respective countries.

The two agreed to exchange their respective news bulletin, via internet or any other means.

In the case of the use of the internet, each party undertook to provide the other, keys to access the bulletins.

The pair, additionally, committed to ensuring that the essential content of the news item was kept and not distorted.

The MoU was jointly signed in Accra by the Mr Kwaku Osei-Bonsu, GNA’s Acting General Manager, and Mrs Valentine Claudine Oumou Barry Sana, IPA Central Director, and climaxed a two-day working visit by the AIP officials to the GNA.

According to the MoU, whenever possible, “while covering International events in Ghana or Cote d’Ivoire; (GNA) and (AIP) shall grant priority to usage of each other’s news copy”.

They also agreed to respond to each other’s requests concerning additional services not mentioned in the agreement.

The MoU has a unique objective to exchange news, photo services and other products, between the two state owned news agencies free of charge – with no subscription fee.

They would exchange visits and the procedures for doing this would be determined by each specific case.

Any differences that might arise from the implementation of the agreement would be resolved by the parties in a spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding.

Source: GNA