AJA holds second ZOOM meeting across seven time zones

AJA holding its second ZOOM meeting (Eddy)

SEOUL: Asia Journalists association (AJA) has again shown its great resilience by holding its second ZOOM meeting that brought together members living up to seven time zone away from one another.

AJA members living in Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Korea discussed

Ivan Lim from Singapore gave a briefing on the general election held in Singapore on July 10, providing details about the polls, the major candidates and the voters as ballots were cast during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ivan

Ivan, a veteran journalist, also talked about how journalists carried out their assignments and mission despite the numerous challenges imposed by the global coronavirus.

Following the briefing, the veteran journalist and former president of AJA answered the queries of the other AJA members who had shown great interest in knowing more about the general election in Singapore.

Ivan had written several analyses for AJA ahead of the polls, giving interesting insights into the general election, including the sibling rivalry.

Ashraf with his famous AJA background (Ashraf)

AJA President Ashraf Ashraf Aboul-Yazid explained his suggestion to highlight the identity and purpose of AJA in a video to communicate with stakeholders, colleagues and friends.

Ashraf said that AJA was proud of its numerous achievements across several countries throughout the years since it was established and should use modern technology to record them and to share them with the world.

Comments were supportive of Ashraf’s proposals and further details mainly regarding logistics will be discussed at the next meeting.

Nasir Yousoff called for widening the focus on AJA’s history and work through adopting several options that would use modern technology to make the continental organization better known.

Rasha Abdellah

Rasha Abdellah shared her views on matters related to highlighting AJA activities and expressed her delight to be able to communicate live with fellow AJA members despite the geographical distances, the tome zones and the restrictions imposed by COVID-19.

“Very happy to meet all of you my  friends,” she said.

Eddy Suprapto (Ashraf)

Eddy Suprapto shared his views on all issues taken up at the meeting and expressed readiness to contribute through his memories with AJA and through his music to projects that would highlight the organization achievements despite its relatively young age.

Sang-ki and Seok-Jae (Ashraf)

Former AJA President Sang-Ki Lee whose flamboyant panache ensured the easiness of the discussions called for AJA’s weekly meetings to be held on Thursday starting July 23.

“We had a very nice meeting today. This is a new era for AJA,” he said.

Seok-Jae Kang whose remarks adroitly combined seriousness and wit said he w

“Nice to see you all,” he said at the end of the meeting. “See you next Thursday.”

Eddy concluded the meeting with another melodious song from his rich repertoire that won him several “encores” from his viewers. “Thank you and all the best, our friends, our AJA family,” he said.

The meeting was moderated by Habib Toumi.