AZERTAC – unchanging address of accurate news for 103 years
Baku, March 1, AZERTAC
Today, marks the 103rd anniversary of the founding of Azerbaijan`s first national news agency - AZERTAC. For more than a century, the agency has been writing a chronicle of Azerbaijan: day by day, hour by hour. Though the years have passed and the times have changed, AZERTAC remains the unchanging address of accurate, honest and objective news.
A legacy of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, AZERTAC’s path to success was difficult, but glorious. The first national news agency, the Telegraph Agency, was founded on 1 March 1920 by the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The agency published its first news on 2 March. The agency operated independently for only 58 days, however, it managed to inscribe its name in history even in such a short time.
AZERTAC has undergone several structural and name changes during the nearly 70-year history of the USSR. The Azerbaijan Telegraph Agency actually became a branch of SITA.
A comprehensive turn in the life of AZERTAC began in 1969, when Heydar Aliyev came to power. Fitted with state-of-the-art equipment, the agency soon rose to prominence throughout the USSR, becoming a hub for receiving and transmitting news releases to the republics of the South Caucasus. AZERTAC was the first among the news agencies of Soviet republics to be equipped with “Olivetti’ computers after “Ukrinform”.
One of Azerbaijan’s priority objectives after gaining independence was to access the world’s information space and circulate the truth about our country as widely as possible. Speaking about this, we can’t but recall the words of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in his congratulatory message to the AZERTAC team on the occasion of the agency’s 80th anniversary: “Along with continuing the noble patriotic traditions of our national journalism, AZERTAC must also work towards securing a worthy place in the information space of the world.”
AZERTAC has also signed cooperation agreements with about 50 leading news agencies and conducts information exchanges with about 150 agencies. AZERTAC closely cooperates with the Associated Press, Reuters, Press Association and DPA. The agency is an active member the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA). AZERTAC held the presidency of both News Agencies World Congress and Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies for 2016-2019, a three-year term. In 2016, Baku simultaneously hosted the main forums of two leading media organizations – the Fifth News Agencies World Congress and the 16th General Assembly of OANA. Thus, Azerbaijan and AZERTAC have inscribed their name in the history of the world media.
Thanks to the attention and care of President Ilham Aliyev, today, the 103-year-old AZERTAC, celebrates another anniversary of its establishment in a new world-class office building, which is equipped with the most modern information technologies for employees to have the opportunity to work effectively, use modern technical means and innovative technologies.
AZERTAC is producing news in 8 languages, including in Azerbaijani, English, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese covering socio-political, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, healthcare, sport, environmental and other fields, as well as video news in 5 languages, which is the first new agency in the region to do so.
Following the historic victory in the Patriotic War, a new era has ushered in the life of both Azerbaijan and the country's media. Fundamental reforms are being carried out in the country towards the modernization of the media and raising it to the level of world standards.
AZERTAC is doing its utmost to respond flexibly to ever-changing challenges and takes consistent steps to ensure full effectiveness and objectivity, which are the core principles of modern news broadcasting.
AZERTAC, the unchanging address of objective and accurate news, continues to write the annals of our modern history of Azerbaijan - a country, which is rapidly developing and has its own say on the international scene.
