Doha, November 08 (QNA) - CEO of the German Press Agency (DPA), Peter Kropsch, said in an interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA) on the eve of the inauguration of the agency's new office at Media City Qatar that the opening embodies the growing strategic partnership and the great importance Germany attaches to the State of Qatar and the wider Gulf region.

He pointed out that cementing German-Qatari ties and political and economic relations had made it quite natural for the agency to keep pace with this momentum by establishing a direct media presence at the heart of the action.

He added that economic relations between Germany and the Gulf countries, including the State of Qatar, had grown substantially in recent years, prompting the agency to strengthen its on-the-ground presence and expand the scope of its coverage of regional events and developments.

Kropsch lauded the facilities and infrastructure provided by Media City Qatar, describing them as high-end and fully outfitted to meet the needs of journalistic work. He also highlighted the importance of its location in the heart of the capital, which enables journalists to engage directly with the community and news sources.

The CEO explained that DPA began its operations in the region about a year ago and is seeking, down the road, to substantially strengthen its journalists' capacity to participate in covering major events, follow various political, economic and cultural developments, and deliver news from the region to its audiences and partners in German, English and Arabic.

Kropsch emphasized that he is grateful for the existing cooperation with QNA, stressing that media training represents one of the next steps toward deepening and expanding this partnership, following what he described as quite productive discussions during a visit by a QNA delegation to DPA's headquarters in Berlin.

The DPA's Arabic-language news service is gaining increasing importance in light of the region's standing, he noted, explaining that it is a global service through which the agency cooperates with numerous media organizations, including The Associated Press. Kropsch suggested that having journalists on the ground in the Gulf region would contribute to far more dynamic and effective coverage of events there.

  Assessing the State of Qatar's media landscape, he said it was experiencing continuous activity and development, noting that the presence of media organizations from different nationalities and specializations at Media City Qatar would provide a powerful incentive for sharing expertise and experiences while substantially enhancing development opportunities for Qatari and international media organizations.

The CEO added that DPA's strategy is structured around a network of regional offices and correspondents in more than 80 countries outside Germany, enabling it to keep up with political and economic shifts and direct its resources toward markets experiencing increasingly strong demand for news coverage. He also pointed to the expanding economic ties between Europe, particularly Germany, and the Gulf countries.

On the use of artificial intelligence in journalism, Kropsch said this technology is one of the biggest transformations facing the journalism industry and will affect virtually every aspect of news agencies' operations. However, he stressed that journalists would remain involved at both the beginning and the end of the news production process, with responsibility for credibility and accuracy remaining firmly in human hands.

He explained that DPA views artificial intelligence as an assistive tool that enables faster access to information and far more efficient data integration, noting that the agency was among the first media organizations to provide its clients with an interactive tool that allows them to ask questions in natural language and receive answers based on the reliable information provided by the agency.

Kropsch further emphasized that the value of journalistic institutions extends beyond providing information to include establishing trust, which, he said, stems from human effort and an unwavering commitment to professional standards.

Regarding efforts to combat misinformation, Kropsch said DPA established a specialized fact-checking and verification department in 2016 and 2017, which has since become one of its fastest-growing departments. He explained that human assessment remains the bedrock of the verification process, despite technology's supporting role in detecting content manipulation, including the use of reverse-image search tools to establish the origin of images and the context in which they are used.

He suggested that training programs for local and regional journalists were among the objectives the agency sought to advance in cooperation with Media City Qatar and QNA, emphasizing his confidence in the capabilities of young Qatari journalists and his eagerness to benefit from and develop those capabilities through joint training programs.

On the future of news agencies' business models amid digital transformations, Kropsch said conventional media would not disappear but would instead complement new forms of journalistic work. He anticipated the emergence of new categories of clients, including individuals and institutions, users relying on AI agents to obtain information, and eventually intelligent systems that would consume news content directly.

DPA expects to make its reliable databases accessible to artificial intelligence agents, enabling them to retrieve information relevant to users' needs and deliver it at the appropriate time, HE the CEO outlined, remarking that these transformations would open up new markets for news enterprises, particularly among businesses and decision-makers who rely on reliable, impartial and independent information to make their decisions.

Lastly, Kropsch stressed that continuing to provide accurate and independent information would remain a fundamental factor in strengthening the sustainability of news organizations and expanding their business opportunities in an evolving digital environment. (QNA)