Athens News Agency: News in English (AM), 97-06-01
NEWS IN ENGLISH
Athens, Greece, 01/06/1997 (ANA)
MAIN HEADLINES
- ANA Med National Agencies conference concludes
- "November 17" terrorists admit to 1996 US embassy rocket attack
- PM Simitis concludes tour of Epirus
- International conference on commerce concludes
- Greek Armed Forces chief's visit to Romania
- FM Pangalos to visit Luxembourg, Tirana
- Rostropovich to perform in Thessaloniki
- Drachma stabilised
- Weather
- Foreign Exchange
NEWS IN DETAIL
ANA Med National Agencies conference concludes
The Athens News Agency seminar "National News Agencies in the New
Communiucation Era" wound up its sessions today, with a discussion on
marketing strategies for news agencies in the new information era and the
transmission of visual images among national news agencies and the
challenge posed by the Internet.
The seminar, which began yesterday, discussed news agencies' role in the
information society, with diversification as a strategy for survival,
subscribers' expectations from a national news agency, tailored services
such as sports, finance and video news, as well as on-line data bases and
CD-ROM.
The seminar, sponsored by the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation
(OTE) and its subsidiary OTEnet, was opened by Press and Media Minister
Dimitris Reppas.
Takis Mantis, the Athens News Agency's Data Processing Manager, told
participants this morning of the challenges that the Internet had posed to
news agencies as well as its future potential.
He outlined the ANA's efforts to transmit photographic images to subscribers
both throughout Greece and in rural regions and abroad, as well as linking
the Greek photographic service with other news agencies such as those in
the Mediterranean region either via the telephone network, e-mail or
ftp.
The advent of the Internet however posed specific challenges to news
agencies despite offering an opportunity for the agencies' and journalism's
development.
"Internet is here to stay," Mantis said. "Internet strikes at the
intermediary, in that it offer users immediate access to the news source.
In one sense, the news agencies are intermediaries, therefore they have to
offer added services in order to survive."
Planning once made two-three years in advance now must be made for three to
six months at the most as what holds good today "may need to be reviewed in
a short period of time," he said.
"Apart from the usual customers (newspapers, magazines, radio and
television), other possible markets should be sought to a greater degree,"
Mantis said, citing economic, stock exchange, sports and shipping
organisations, political parties, unions and other public and private
organisations as well as specific categories of consumers and business
representatives or individuals who require substantiated and specialised
information.
New techniques could offer a two-way communication between agencies and
their clients using already existing networks which would allow for direct
and speedy exchange of a large volume of data and bring about a significant
reduction in the time required for each step in the process of producing
the final product.
National news agencies will have to be prepared for the day when electronic
commerce on the Internet becomes possible, Mantis said.
"We can say given the spread of Internet and particularly Intranet, there
is the possibility of unified presentation of products by agencies to
multiple users in particularly effective ways. As long as Internet is not
able to handle money easily and safely, electronic commerce will be
delayed. However, as the Internet software improves, commerce becomes
possible and promises to be a significant activity. Then we will have to be
at the ready..."
Addressing the issue of "Marketing for news agencies in the new era", Dr.
Emmanuel Heretakis, of the University of Athens, said the overall media
environment was "characterised by an increasing degree of fluidity and
instability".
"We must consider that we have to 'see', to 'read' new situations with new
eyes - treating continuously evolving environments and contexts with an
arsenal of concepts that were 'constructed' on the basis of old contexts
will do us no good," Heretakis said.
The "ever-expanding commodification" of news begs the question of the
scarcity and the nature of news, he said.
"Such a long-range view attaches the sense and the necessity of historicity
in any news item; key issues, for example, need to be put into a wider
context, a wider environment if they are to be understood in a wider, more
complete sense, involving their most significant, at least, ramifications,"
he said.
"New technologies also blur the until now well-defined distinction between
wholesaler and retailer; under the present context, any retailer may offer
the services of a wholesaler and vice versa."
"The ever-widening application of new technologies pose the urgent need of
re-defining major aspects of news/information, that were terra inviolabilis
(that is, considered as being inviolable) up to now: copyright and
confidentiality, central problems to be delineated, formulated and resolved
within the new context, by highly specialised lawyers and legal advisors."
New conditions, where the distinction between producer and consumer or
customer have far more autonomous meanings, has created problems in need of
answers, Heretakis said.
This will imply, he said, the formation of "dedicated multi-skilled teams,
able to cope with an ever-changing environment and with changing demands in
the marketplace, continuous packaging and re-packaging news/information in
their continuous striving for added revenue and in opportunities for an
efficient differentiation."
Heretakis proposed more research about the end users and their needs, with
research coordinated by a versatile, informal marketing committee reporting
to the Alliance of the Mediterranean News Agencies.
This committee, he suggested, would have a consultative character, advising
the top management of the Alliance's news agencies about how to navigate,
serve and expand in today's increasingly complex world."
"This problem is of major importance," Heretakis said. "Who creates
whom...to anticipate change, research can help us to find what faces
us...and will help in having an idea in the demand of what sort of
news."
The proposal will be forwarded to the Alliance's general assembly in Cairo
next month.
In the subsequent discussion, ANA's General Director Andreas Christodoulides
said the ANA's investment in photo transmission would bring returns
soon.
"We offer more Greek photos than Reuters. Reuters offers two to three (a
day), we offer 30...It's a good investment, in two years' time we will get
back our investment."
Summing up the results of the two-day session, ANA General Director Andreas
Christodoulides said the level of participants and interest from Mediterranean
news agencies had indicated the need to discuss the issues involved with
operating in a new era.
"I think we have touched on all the problems being faced by the media these
days, particularly by the national news agencies," he said.
"The two-way relationship emerging from the development of the various
communication networks, the large number of options offered to users and
the possibilities they have to determine the shape and form of the
information accessed (according to volume, to depth and to type, such as
text, photograph, graphics, video or a blend of all these) are some of the
characteristics of the new era," he said.
"Sources have multiplied along with fears as to the credibility of
information reaching users. Thus the role of the news agencies is a
decisive one, since to a great extent they are a 'tried and true' factor in
the news business".
News agencies will have to adapt to the new technological methods of
collecting, editing and distributing news and information in order to meet
changing needs as well as new aesthetic standards, Christodoulides
said.
"Here we will be facing new competitors - perhaps even with those who were
until recently our own subscribers - and we will have to realise that
gradually the comfort offered to many agencies by the state will disappear,
" he said.
"We have to come out of the wings, onto the stage of the media and to offer
services aimed at individuals and their specialised needs."
"Developments are expected to be so rapid that indeed, as Socrates said
twenty five hundred years ago 'We know that we know nothing'," he
said.
The next meeting of Mediterranean news agencies will be the general
assembly in Cairo, Egypt on June 22-24.
"November 17" terrorists admit to 1996 US embassy rocket attack
The "November 17" terrosist group in a new proclamation has assumed
responsibility for the rocket attack on the United States' embassy in
Athens, back in February 1996.
The terrorists' proclamation, the third sent to Athenian daily ELEFTHEROTYPIA
in as many days, says that they did not issue one at the time of the attack
on the US mission because "the reasons were so obvious and understood" and
it relates it to the Imia crisis between Greece and Turkey in January
1996.
Police sources said on Friday that American police authorities have offered
the use of state-of-the-art electronic equipment to assist in the hunt for
the terrorist group.
Meanwhile the 21st victim of "November 17", 42-year-old shipowner Costas
Peratikos was laid to rest in Athens today, shot on Wednesday by three
assailants in a Piraeus street ambush.
PM Simitis concludes tour of Epirus
At the end of his three-day tour of the northwestern Epirus region Prime
Minister Costas Simitis yesterday said his government had set out to
"break" Epirus' isolation and was determined to do it.
"We have set out to 'break' Epirus' isolation and we will," the premier
said, adding that progress in under-construction projects indicated that
the government was proceeding towards this goal.
Asked, the premier said the government would give a series of incentives to
help development but warned those receiving subsidies that they would have
to contribute to growth.
Simitis reiterated his government's focus on Greece's participation to the
european orientation.
If Greece did not have a european orientation, Simitis said then the
country would have to suffer from the political and economic consequences
of such a decision, one which would also weaken the country's international
position as well as its position against the Turkish threat.
The premier strongly disputed comments that the government aimed, through
social dialogue, to contain the worker's vested rights.
"Nothing is less true than this," he said, adding that his government's
goal was to bring about changes through social consensus.
"Changes in society cannot be ordered. They happen only if all of us have
the will to take the effort...," he added.
Turning to the situation in Albania, Simitis said current efforts to find a
political solution were the result of the Greek government's initiatives.
"We have ensured the presence of the United Nations and of the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe and of the European Union," the
premier said.
He added that his government had helped in the direction of finding a
solution, hoping that this would be implemented over the next few
months.
"If things evolved in a different way, then we would swarmed by a
tremendous wave of refugees, while Greek minority rights could run the risk
of being restricted," he added.
Addressing a large gathering in Igoumenitsa, earlier in the day, Simitis
said he was determined to see the government's (economic) programme
through.
"The Greek economy has ceased to be the obvious example (that it once was)
of a unique European Union failure," the premier said.
Simitis said the Greek economy was more effective today than it has ever
been in the post-junta era. He said the government had achieved this while
implementing a social policy. "No one can dispute this," the premier
said.
The premier also refered to Greece's place in international developments.
The country, he said, cannot close its borders in an effort to stop other
countries' problems from entering (the Greek society.)
Greece's integration into the European unification, he added, "constitutes
an important goal of our national strategy, aimed at Pmaking Greece
competitive in the international division of labour market."
Simitis also refered to Greece's role in the Balkans. He said this role was
aimed at helping these countries overcome their problems and complete the
process of their countries' institutional reforms.
International conference on commerce concludes
An International Conference on Commerce and Distribution held over the
weakend in Alexandroupolis, northern Greece wound up its sessions this
afternoon.
Summing up the conclusions of the conference, National Confederation of
Greek Commerce President Dimitris Kapsalis said that commerce, one of the
most important economic activities, did not receive proper attention from
the member-states of the European Union and called for the establishment of
an independent body to focus on commerce activity.
Kapsalis proposed that the "General Directive of Commerce," be established
within the broader activity of the European Commission.
He also pointed out to the need for another independent body to represent
commercial companies.
Hoping that the Greek Commerce Undersecretary Michalis Chrysochoidis would
keep his promises to reinforce Greek commerce activities, Kapsalis turned
to the problems facing Greek commerce.
Kapsalis said small-to-middle-size companies did not have access to funding
sources and were therefore in need to request state funding.
Addressing the conference on Saturday, Chrysochoidis said the Greek state
was determined to change existing conditions regulating competition in
Greece.
He said the government also planned to take measures for the protection of
consumers.
EU Commissioner Christos Papoutsis said commerce was the second largest
sector of economic activity in the European Union, adding that the European
Commission was planning on taking measures for the development of commerce
in areas with limited commercial activities such as agricultural areas.
Vice President of the European Investment Bank, Panayiotis Yenimatas,
speaking during a working luncheon on Saturday, refered to anticipated
changes in market conditions and commerce after the introduction of the
Euro.
Yennimatas said the unification of the european market will give rise to
tougher competition, concentration of capital in big networks and retailers
and will also give rise to electronic commerce.
Greek Armed Forces chief's visit to Romania
National Defence General Staff chief Gen. Athanasios Tzoganis discussed
issues concerning cooperation between the armed forces of Greece and
Romania during his recent visit to the Balkan nation.
Gen. Tzoganis held talks with his Romanian counterpart, Gen. Constantin
Degeratu, the presidents of the Romanian parliament's and senate's defence
committees, that nation's defence minister and the presidential adviser on
defence issues.
Gen. Tzoganis also discussed existing possibilities for military cooperation,
the situation in the Balkans, and Albania in particular, as well as
Romania's potential accession to the NATO alliance.
FM Pangalos to visit Luxembourg, Tirana
Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos will leave for Luxembourg on Monday, to
participate in the European Union Council of General Affairs. Next Tuesday
he will travel to Albania for a one-day visit.
Rostropovich to perform in Thessaloniki
Russian-born cellist Mstislav Rostropovich will appear at the Philharmonic
Orchestra of Nations in Thessaloniki on June 3 and 4, visiting the city as
part of the Cultural Capital of Europe events.
Mr. Rostropovich will solo with works of Dvorak on June 3. The next evening
he will conduct the same orchestra with works by Serge Prokofiev, as the
National Ballet of Lithuania performs Romeo and Juliet.
The performances will take place in the renovated Theatre-in-the-Forest
which holds 3,500 people.
Drachma stabilised
The Greek money market returned to normal trade on Friday after three days
of turmoil that led to total outflows of around 1.5 billion drachmas and
forced the Bank of Greece to step up interventions in order to curb the
drachma's slide.
The Greek currency rose against the ECU and most other foreign currencies
to end at 311 drachmas from Thursday's 312 drachmas versus the ECU at the
central bank's daily fix. Outflows were minimal, totalling 30 million US
dollars.
Interbank rates fell to around 10.50-10.70 percent, reversing an early
advance to 13 percent.
Weather
On Sunday fair weather is expected over most of Greece with the poassiblity
of local cloud in the mainland regions. Winds will be westsouthernly, weak
to moderate. Temperatures will range 23-27C.
Foreign Exchange
Friday's closing rates - buying US dlr. 269.080
Pound sterling 442.015 Cyprus pd 531.712
French franc 46.920 Swiss franc 191.208
German mark 158.656 Italian lira (100) 15.965
Yen (100) 231.890 Canadian dlr. 195.067
Australian dlr. 205.126 Irish Punt 407.692
Belgian franc 7.682 Finnish mark 52.534
Dutch guilder 140.973 Danish kr. 41.662
Swedish kr. 34.916 Norwegian kr. 37.970
Austrian sch. 22.542 Spanish peseta 1.874
Port. Escudo 1.566
(K.G.)
(M.S.)
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