The declaration reads: “We, heads of more than 10 leading news agencies and regional news agency alliances who arrived in the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku, to attend the 5th News Agencies World Congress, “New challenges for news agencies”, hosted by Azerbaijan State News Agency (AZERTAC) and supported by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, on November 16-17, 2016, - note that our biggest challenges are: Financing and Defending sustainable, independent and unbiased news reporting based on the principles of freedom of speech in the digital era; - stress the importance of securing journalists' safety when doing their jobs; - recognize the commitment of international, regional and national media organizations to fundamental principles of information provision, underlining the fact that the freedom of press is the crucial requirement in the 21st century; - stress that against the background of ongoing transformation in the information society, respect for universal values, human dignity, rule of law, justice, equality and respect for racial, ethnic and cultural diversity are of vital importance and an essential condition for the activities of the media; - urge all to combat plagiarism and copyright infringement and to combine efforts to prevent the production and deliberate spread of untrue and biased information - announce that a decision was made to hold the 6th News Agencies World Congress in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia in 2019. --More 17:14 LOCAL TIME 14:14 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w271594