STATUTES

PREMABLE : Tunis Declaration of November 21, 1991

" The General Directors of the Mediterranean countries news agencies who are participating in an international symposium called " Communication in the Mediterranean and the future " in Tunis between 19 and 21 November 1991 as part of a meeting organized because of the 30^th anniversary of the Tunisian News Agency (TAP) :

1.  Conscious of old and Omni-directional ties between the two shores of the Mediterranean;

v      Believing in the future development of closer information in this region between the news agencies of the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean;

v      Stressing that information and communication will be able to play a basic role in the realization of the consciousness that it is necessary to strengthen the ties between Mediterranean countries;

v      Believing that issues like democratization, human rights, socio-economic, cultural and scientific development, the environment, migration (and) peace and security in the Mediterranean could be subject to ties and dialogue between these agencies;

v      Declaring that is necessary to achieve this communication with the desire of contributing to Mediterranean information and in the framework of free transfer of information;

v      Thinking that meetings between Mediterranean countries news agencies at predetermined intervals will strengthen dialogue and cooperation among them and direct them to other areas of interest;

v      Declare their intention to set up a working group constituted of LUSA (Portugal), AA (Turkey) and SANA (Syria) and coordinated by TAP (Tunisia) with the aim of strengthening inter-agency cooperation.

This Committee will be charged with investigating possibilities and ways of achieving the common objectives defined at the Tunis symposium, such as setting up a union or club of Mediterranean news bulletin creating a directory of the Mediterranean news agencies and developing technical relations ".  

Mindful of these exhortations, the signatories news agencies of the Tunis Declaration met in a Constituent General Assembly in Istanbul on October 2, 1992 and adopted a Statute. On June 7 and 8, 1993, during the General Assembly held in Damascus it was agreed to entrust the Follow-up Committee to revise and enrich the Statutes with the special cooperation of MAP. A draft edition was discussed on April 7, 1994, in Damascus by the Follow-up Committee. The provisions have been revised by the third Alliance's General Assembly, on June 26-27, 1994, in Rome, as follows: