The agency will also set up its bureau in Jakarta as one of the three English publishing desks apart from the one in Turkey and the US.
AAs Deputy Director General Editor-in-Chief Metin Mutanoglu stated after meeting LKBN Antaras General Director Meidyatama Suryodiningrat in Jakarta on Monday that the program will be launched by the end of June 2017, and 50 news stories in Bahasa will be broadcast daily.
AAs decision to expand its international news services is based on the fact that Indonesia is a big and important friend of Turkey, with a long-standing history, yet economic cooperation between both countries reaches some US$2 billion, he noted.
Of the 50 news stories in Bahasa, 25 will cover international issues from AA journalists across the world, 15 will highlight issues related to Turkey, and the rest will be on Indonesia covered by AA correspondents and journalists in the country.
He added that in order to support the Bahasa news program, his side will recruit 20 experienced journalists from Indonesia and six others from Turkey.
It is expected that with the new program, AA would serve as an alternative foreign news source apart from other media outlets in Indonesia, considering that it is a trans-national news agency, with several links in various countries, such as war-torn Syria.
Mutanoglu said that AA has a strong presence in Syria since the agency has several correspondents there, and they closely follow news related to Europe.
During Mutanoglus meeting with Antara Chief Suryodiningrat, he was accompanied by six other delegates from AA, including International Operations Director Ural Yesil and Language Services Chief Editor Mehmet Ozturk.
Apart from launching Indonesian language news in Jakartas bureau, AA will also expand its news network in Bogota, Colombia, by launching a Spanish news program.
Speaking in connection with the program, Suryodiningrat welcomed the Turkish news agencys innovative steps by offering cooperation on the distribution of news with Antara to make AA easily accessible to the local media.
He stated that as a national news agency, Antara has a wide network of consumer media, reaching all provinces in Indonesia, which makes it easily accessible to media outlets in the nation without the need to contact them individually.
Mutanoglu said his side lauds the offer from Suryodiningrat, including the idea through which AA news will be offered free of charge for the initial six months until a year.
The news agency established by several Turkish figures, such as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Halide Edip Adivar, and Yunus Nadi Abalioglu, currently broadcasts at least one thousand news stories every day. Among them are news stories broadcast in 10 other languages, such as Arabic, English, Kurdish, Russian, Bosnian, and Albanian.
(Reported by Rahmad Nasution/R013/Ian/INE/KR-MBR/INE/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
