IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

The Islamic Republic News Agency in Retrospect
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) was established in 1934 by the Foreign Ministry of Iran as the country's official national news outlet. For the next six years it operated under the Iranian Foreign Ministry working to disseminate national and international news. Pars Agency, as it was then known, published a bulletin twice a day in French and in Persian which it circulated among government officials, international news agencies in Tehran and the local press.

In May 1940, the General Tablighat Department was founded and the agency then became an affiliate of the department organizationally.

Agence France Press (AFP) was the first international news agency whose reports Pars Agency used. Gradually, the Iranian news agency expanded its sources of news stories to include those of Reuters, the Associated Press (AP) and the United Press International (UPI). An agreement with the Anatolia News Agency of Turkey further expanded the agency's news outlets to countries worldwide. The link-up also enabled it to provide classified bulletins to a limited number of high-ranking public officials.

It was in 1954 that Pars Agency made a significant move forward. It recruited better-educated people thereby improving its professional services while continuing to avail of dispatches of international newsagencies. It also went on air with radio broadcasts of international
news which it translated into Persian and offered to subscribers
locally.

Expanding further in news coverage, it operated under the supervision of various state offices and ministries such as the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephones, Office of the Prime Minister and the Labor Ministry until 1947. In 1957, the General Department of Tablighat fell under the supervision of the Publications Department of Tehran Radio as an independent department.

In 1963 the Information Ministry was created and activities of Pars
Agency was brought under this ministry. Its name was changed to `Pars News Agency,' or PANA, which then began operating 'round the clock.

In July 1975 a bill was passed by the country's legislature which
established the Ministry of Information and Tourism and changed the status of Pars News Agency to a joint public stock with capital assetsof about 300 million rials. It then became an affiliate of the new ministry. Its Articles of Association in 23 paragraphs and notes were adopted by the then National Consultative Assembly of Iran.

After the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in February 1979 the
revolution's council, in June 1979, decided to rename the Ministry of Information and Tourism to the National Guidance Ministry (or Ministry of National Guidance). This was followed in December, 1981 bya bill passed by the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) changing the name of the country's official news agency from Pars News Agency to Islamic Republic News Agency.

Guidelines
The professional activities of the Islamic Republic News Agency
(IRNA) are based on and aimed at securing the Islamic Republic of Iran's national interests. Efforts of management and professional personnel of IRNA are thus focused on achieving higher ground each day n fulfillment of its stated goal.
The organization functions as the "mother source of information
dissemination" within the country, feeding its authorities, nationals and various publications with various types of news, bulletins, research works, opinion polls and stories of general interest through its various telex lines. It also provides link-up channels for online foreign dispatches and photographs around the clock. IRNA's external services include those rendered to leading international news agencies in accordance with contracts signed with them, active membership in international news clubs, up-to-date news stories on the country supplied internationally through its International News Line, and an active presence in the Internet through its Persian, English and Arabic websites. For its services, IRNA is aided by a huge professional core of executive and administrative staff who work inside and outside the country in its various local, regional and overseas branches. It also takes full advantage of stringers around the globe and has an organizational set-up that allows all its facilities to be used inside or outside the country on contractual arrangement. In order to effectively carry out its responsibilities it has set up the following guidelines:

Mass production and dissemination of news and informative
material taking into account its main objective of promoting the
interests and objectives of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Promotion of the Islamic culture as far as possible and
encountering the cultural onslaught of enemies of the Islamic
Revolution.
Expansion of activities conducive to the acquisition and
dissemination of more news items inside and outside the country.
Dissemination of news stories of the Islamic world in general.
Providing news items to Iranian newspapers and periodicals.
Laying the ground for a wholesome competition with major
international news agencies and corporations.
Providing news through as vast a network as possible.
Expansion of its news dissemination network as far and wide
as is possible.
Expansion and strengthening of professional level bilateral
and multilateral cooperation with various countries' news agencies and active cooperation in the formation and strengthening of joint regional and international networks.
Providing news dissemination and news research assistance outside its organizational boundaries when its professional assistance is sought and when they prove to be in the country's geopolitical and national interests.