Information Telegraph Agency of Russia

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(Redirected from ITAR TASS)

ITAR-TASS (ИТАР-ТАСС), Information Telegraph Agency of Russia, is the major news agency of the Russian Federation. It is headquartered in Moscow.

1 History
2 Legal information
3 See also
4 External links

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History

Its origin is in a letter sent by Finance Minister Vladimir Kokovtsov to foreign minister on March 26, 1904 writing that "our trade and industrial circles, as well as the Finance Ministry, are ever more in need of an independent exchange of information with foreign countries by telegraph and of a way to make internal business developments widely-known".

In July 1904 a meeting was held about the setting up of an official Telegraph Agency, St. Petersburg Telegraph Agency (SPTA). The new agency's purpose was "to distribute political, financial, economic, trade, and other information of public interest within the country and abroad...". The St. Petersburg Telegraph Agency began work on September 1, 1904.

On August 19 1914 Petrograd Telegraph Agency (PTA) was decreed by the government to become the central news agency of the state. On December 1, 1917, PTA is decreed to be the central information agency of the RSFSR Sovnarkom.

On September 7 1918 PTA and Sovnarkom Press Bureau (бюро печати) are merged into the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA). On 25 July, 1925 it became the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union or Telegrafnoe Agentstvo Sovetskogo Soyuza (TASS) by decree of the USSR Central Executive Committee Presidium.

In 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was inherited by the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia - ITAR-TASS. It is still state-funded, and according to its website now produces about 700 newspaper pages per day, just under its Soviet peak. It has 74 bureaus and offices in Russia and other CIS countries and 65 bureaus in 62 foreign countries.

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