Cyprus News Agency turns 30, prepares for revamp

The Cyprus New Agency (CNA) celebrated its 30-year anniversary on Thursday, with messages of support coming from both government ministers and the President, Tassos Papadopoulos.

The CNA provides full news in Greek, a large amount of news in English and more recently a certain amount of news in Turkish.

The Council of Ministers has recently approved the new restructuring plan for the CNA which will include additional staff and an extension of working hours.

Interior Minister Andreas Christou said “the introduction of a Turkish news service has given the possibility to Turkish Cypriots and Turkish politicians and media in Turkey and the occupied areas to be informed about developments on the island” and that “CNA news items are often published in Turkish Cypriot and Turkish media, and the Agency is given credit for that.”

CNA enjoys an annual state grant while local media outlets pay a small fee to the agency for news and photos.

In his key note speech, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus News Agency Dr Aristos Aristotelous said that the reform of CNA will allow it to increase coverage of the European Union and the economy.

The Agency participates in the World Congress of News Agency, the European Alliance of News Agencies, the Mediterranean Alliance of News Agencies, the Commonwealth Alliance of News Agencies and the Commonwealth Press Union.

Aristotelous noted that said CNA has commercial and cooperation agreements with national and international news agencies, exchanging news or services and expanding its scope of information at home and abroad. Athens News Agency, ITAR-TASS (Russia), AFP (France), ANSA (Italy), KYODO (Italy), IRNA (Iran), XINHUA (China), SANA (Syria), APS (Algiers) and ATA (Albania) are but a few agencies with which CNA has clinched such agreements.