This article concerns the news service. For other uses, see CNA

CNA

- Organizations :*California Nurses Association*Canadian Nuclear Association*Canadian Nurses Association*CNA Institute for Public Research and Center for Naval Analyses*Center for Transportation and Logistics Neuer Adler*Royal Canadian Numismatic Association...

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The Cyprus News Agency (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

: Κυπριακό Πρακτορείο Ειδήσεων；Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

: Kıbrıs Haber Ajansı), or CNA is the major news agency

News agency

A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire or news service.-History:The oldest news agency is Agence...

 in Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

.

CNA currently has commercial agreements with Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

, AFP

Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...

, ITAR-TASS, RIA NOVOSTI and MENA and cooperation agreements with ANA, SANA, XINHUA

Xinhua News Agency

The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...

, ANSA

ANSA

ANSA may refer to:* ANSA, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs , also sometimes abbreviated NSA*Armed non-state actors, a term used in political science*Ansa *Artists for a new South AfricaTechnology:...

, IRNA, PAP, APS and ATA

ATA

ATA or Ata may refer to:* Ata , people with the first name or family name-Education:* Ashcroft Technology Academy, Wandsworth, London, England* Advanced Technologies Academy, a high school in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA...

. CNA also exchanges news with the Macedonian Press Agency

Macedonian Press Agency

The Macedonian Press Agency was one of the two major news agencies in Greece, the other one being Athens News Agency, before they merged into the Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency ....

 (Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

), BTA, STA, KYODO and ROMPRES

ROMPRES

-History:The agency was founded with the name AGERPRES, standing for "Romanian Press Agency" After 1989 the agency changed its name to ROMPRES ....

.

The Cyprus News Agency was officially established on February 16, 1976 at the initiative of the then Director General of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation

Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation

The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation ) or CyBC is Cyprus's public broadcasting service, transmitting island-wide on four radio and two television channels. CyBC is a non-profit organization that utilises its entire income for the promotion of its main mission, which is the objective provision of...

 (CyBC) Andreas Christofides, who saw the need for a national news agency for Cyprus.

Previously, a private news service under the same name had been set up by Miltiades Christodoulou, in 1957. On his appointment as director of the government Press and Information Office (PIO), he handed over to journalist Christakis Katsambas. The operation closed down in 1967.

With the official launching of CNA, Christofides appointed Andreas Hadjipapas, a journalist working for CyBC and correspondent for UPI and AFP

Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...

 in Cyprus, as chief editor of the Agency. Technical facilities were provided by the PIO, thus enabling Hadjipapas to dispatch a daily news bulletin in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 to Reuters and the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool

Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool

The Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool was a cooperation system among news agencies of Non-Aligned countries, which lasted from 1975 to mid-1990s...

.

In 1984, CNA expanded its activities, hired journalists and other staff and secured translation and distribution of its dispatches in other languages apart from English.

In 1989, the Cyprus House of Representatives approved legislation providing for the operation of the Cyprus News Agency as a "semi-governmental" news organisation with full editorial independence

Editorial independence

Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising clientele....

.

Under the Act, CNA is governed by a seven-member Board of Directors comprising established media professionals. The Board includes representatives of the Cyprus Journalists Union, the Cyprus Newspaper and Magazine Publishers Association, CyBC and the PIO.

In 1996, an important year in the development of CNA, news in Greek was introduced, to meet the needs of the local news media which were proliferating, especially in the electronic field and the CNA home page was created on the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

.

A landmark in CNA's history is the signing in 1996 of a cooperation agreement with the Athens News Agency (ANA), which provided CNA its first computerised editing system.

At the same time, CNA sought membership in established media organisations and regional associations of news agencies. Thus, it became a member of the Alliance of Mediterranean News Agencies (AMAN), the European Alliance of Press Agencies (EAPA) and the Commonwealth Press Union

Commonwealth Press Union

-Commonwealth Press Union :The Commonwealth Press Union was an association composed of 750 members in 49 countries, including newspaper groups , individual newspapers, and news agencies throughout the Commonwealth of Nations...

 (CPU).

In June 1998, CNA was elected President of the Alliance of the Mediterranean News Agencies (AMAN) at the Alliance's Seventh General Assembly, held in Limassol

Limassol

Limassol is the second-largest city in Cyprus, with a population of 228,000 . It is the largest city in geographical size, and the biggest municipality on the island. The city is located on Akrotiri Bay, on the island's southern coast and it is the capital of Limassol District.Limassol is the...

. During its tenure as President, CNA hosted in Nicosia

Nicosia

Nicosia from , known locally as Lefkosia , is the capital and largest city in Cyprus, as well as its main business center. Nicosia is the only divided capital in the world, with the southern and the northern portions divided by a Green Line...

, in cooperation with AFP, a technical seminar for the member-agencies of the Alliance (March 1999). In June 2000, CNA was unanimously elected at the Ninth General Assembly to the post of Secretary-General of AMAN, for a three-year period and was re-elected in 2003 for a further three-year tem.

In 2002, CNA introduced news in Turkish, a press release service and its own photo service offering local coverage of news events.

Together with the budget for 2004, the Council of Ministers and the House of Representatives approved the re-organisation of CNA and a new organisational chart which is to be implemented fully by the end of 2005, thus allowing a further upgrading of the services offered and the operation of the Agency on a 24-hour basis.

Services

As a national news agency, CNA focuses its attention on events in Cyprus and on developments abroad that have some bearing on Cyprus or are of particular interest to the country. It also covers news in the region and activities of the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

, the Council of Europe

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...

 and other multilateral organisations.

Coverage includes developments in the Cyprus issue and the country's accession to the EU, as well as home news, domestic politics, foreign policy, economic and business news, social issues, culture/arts and sports.

CNA has correspondents or stringers in all towns of the island, as well as Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 and Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 and New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

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CNA transmits daily news items in Greek, English and Turkish to its subscribers at home and abroad. Subscribers include daily and weekly newspapers, radio and television stations, international and national press agencies, international organisations, local public and private institutions, Cyprus embassies and press offices throughout the world, foreign embassies and diplomatic missions in Cyprus, as well as Cypriot and Greek

Greek diaspora

The Greek diaspora, also known as Hellenic Diaspora or Diaspora of Hellenism, is a term used to refer to the communities of Greek people living outside the traditional Greek homelands, but more commonly in southeast Europe and Asia Minor...

 overseas communities and their media (newspapers, radio and TV) mainly in Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, the United States of America and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

News items in Turkish are posted on the website for free access and sent by e-mail to the Turkish-Cypriot and Turkish media

Media in Republic of Turkey

|The media of Turkey is diverse; there are a wide variety of domestic and foreign periodicals expressing disparate views, and domestic newspapers are extremely competitive. The media exert a strong influence on public opinion...

, as well as to the Turkish-Cypriot political parties.

In addition to the news items distributed throughout the day, CNA also issues a Cyprus press review in Greek and a 24-hours news summary in Greek for overseas subscribers in large Cypriot and Greek communities, as well as a bulletin on activities of Cypriots abroad.

Through agreements with the Athens News Agency

Athens News Agency

The Athens News Agency was one of the two major news agencies in Greece, the other being the Macedonian Press Agency, before they merged together into the Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency .-History:...

 (ANA) and the European Pressphoto Agency

European Pressphoto Agency

European Pressphoto Agency B.V. is an international news photo agency.Images from all parts of the world covering news, politics, sports, business, finance as well as arts, culture and entertainment are provided by a global network of over 400 professional photographers and included in the epa news...

 (EPA), CNA offers subscribers a large selection of photographs covering local and international events. CNA itself offers photographs on Cyprus events.

As from 1/6/ 2002 CNA offers a Press Release Service, on a subscription basis, offering interested organisations the possibility of distributing verbatim their press releases to the media and other subscribers of the Agency. Through this service, the releases of the Press and Information Office of the Cyprus Government are distributed.

The Agency is planning the introduction of other news services and multimedia services, after implementation of its new organisational chart which will allow an increase of its editorial staff and working hours. These services include news in the format of SMA

SMA

-Education:* Saint Mary's Academy, Rawalpindi, a private English-medium school in Pakistan* Saint Mary's Academy, Dominica, a private high school in the island of Dominica, in the Caribbean...

, MMS

Multimedia Messaging Service

Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from mobile phones. It extends the core SMS capability that allowed exchange of text messages only up to 160 characters in length.The most popular use is to send photographs from...

, WAP

Wireless Application Protocol

Wireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...

 and WEB

WEB

WEB is a computer programming system created by Donald E. Knuth as the first implementation of what he called "literate programming": the idea that one could create software as works of literature, by embedding source code inside descriptive text, rather than the reverse , in an order that is...

.