Romanian National News Agency AGERPRES premiered on Wednesday, November 30, at the UN headquarters, in New York, the first Facebook Messenger NewsBot in Romania, AGERPRES NewsBot, as well as the “People of the Danube Delta, the realm between the waters” video documentary.
Furthermore, the event included an exhibition of images from the AGERPRES Photography Archive. The Romanian National News Agency and the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations organized this event on the occasion of the National Day of Romania.
“The photos chosen for our exhibit invite you to explore and better understand Romania and its people throughout their history and actions. The basis of this project is linked to the very ideal of the United Nations, as more we know about each other, the better are the premises of peaceful coexistence and working together for prosperity,” Romania’s Ambassador to the UN Ion Jinga said.
In his turn, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson voiced his gratitude for AGERPRES’ contribution to promoting the importance of international cooperation:
“We are very grateful for Romania’s and your own, and AGERPRES’ contributions to send the message that international cooperation and the United Nations are indispensible. […] I also think that… there is something that I have been very much impressed by the last five-ten years, and that is the power of the image. […] I see a person, Foreign Minister Manescu, who was one of my predecessors as President of the General Assembly, he was chairing the 22nd session, I was chairing the 60th, some years ago. And then there is the picture of a young man there studying something on the podium — that’s me, as President of the General Assembly, 2005, in front of the President of Romania. So, I’m very impressed by your research here.”, Jan Eliasson stated.
AGERPRES Director General Alexandru Giboi took to the floor with a presentation starting from the past and looking towards the future.
“As you can see, we have Romania’s history, with the good sides and the bad sides. This is the role of media, to capture everything and show it for the future generations to know effectively what to repeat, the good parts, and what not to repeat, and learn from the mistakes. […] We’ve taken you from one hundred years ago, and now we’ll look a bit into the future, maybe 10 years from now. And I’ll show you a project that AGERPRES has. It’s called the AGIL. AGIL is the AGERPRES Innovation Lab. And this innovation lab has not been working for very much time, and we only have a product, which is the AGERPRES NewsBot. The AGERPRES NewsBot helps you access the most relevant content about Romania directly through Facebook Messenger,” said Alexandru Giboi.
The AGERPRES NewsBot helps Facebook users identify the Agency’s most important news items in English, in an easy, interactive and practical manner. It can be accessed using Facebook Messenger, at the link: https://www.messenger.com/t/AgerpresNewsAgency/.
AGERPRES NewsBot is part of the AGERPRES Innovation Lab project, an initiative of the National News Agency devoted to creating an innovation environment, aimed at testing and deploying the newest media production and broadcast techniques on a national and international level. The NewsBot will soon be available in Romanian. More details about AGERPRES NewsBot and AGERPRES Innovation Lab, at the following link: http://agil.agerpres.ro/.
The “People of the Danube Delta, the realm between the waters” video documentary, which was also premiered at the UN headquarters, is a material which entices one to a journey to a world where everything seems to be coming from other times and where the challenge comes from only one question: “What can be saved, preserved and passed on?.” The documentary can be watched online on AGERPRES VIDEO Facebook page, www.facebook.com/AGERPRESVIDEO/ and on the www.agerpres.ro public website.
At the event, AGERPRES also exhibited part of its photographic archive, images depicting the most important moments of Romania’s activity at the UN, the main peacekeeping operations Romania participated in, as well as images reflecting the Romanian cultural-artistic, social, sports and political life. The AGERPRES PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHIVE can be admired at the UN headquarters until December 9.
Also attending the event were Associated Press Vice President John Daniszewski, members of the UN member states’ permanent representations to the UN, as well as members of the Romanian community in the US. More…