Origin and history:

* Founded on December 15, 1955 as a joint stock company owned by Egyptian newspapers with a capital that did not exceed 20,000 pounds at that time, then the Egyptian government participated in half after several months until the decision of the Egyptian Council of Ministers was issued on February 8, 1956, to establish the agency, and on the twenty-eighth of February She started distributing her first bulletins using the “Runeo” device.

* On April 16, 1956, the agency began broadcasting its bulletins on “teachers” devices, as the first regional agency in the Middle East.

* In 1960, a decision was issued to nationalize the agency with the rest of the press institutions, and it became affiliated with the Ministry of Information until its status was stabilized in 1978 as a “national press institution” affiliated with the Shura Council, just like the rest of the national press institutions in Egypt.

* In 1996, the agency began broadcasting its services via three satellites covering the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Whereas, “AHA” used the computer in all operations of editing and broadcasting news via satellite instead of “Tackers” devices.

* The agency broadcasts its news in three languages: Arabic, English and French, where the number of its news reached more than a thousand news daily.

Development and update:

* The concept of the agency’s work has changed from being a service news agency only, to monetizing the service, and to maximizing the agency’s own resources, especially humankind.

The agency has developed the current news services and introduced new news services such as the Video Bulletin Service, the Social Media unit, the Info graph Department, and an application for the AHA Bulletin on smart mobile devices. And the SMS unit via the three mobile networks operating in Egypt, in conjunction with the agency’s transmission of its news to subscribers through its official portal.

* The agency broadcasts from 1996 until now its bulletins through the agency’s news website www.mena.org.eg on the Internet, which was updated in 2005.

At the beginning of 2013, the news site was integrated with all its capabilities within the comprehensive electronic portal of the Agency via the website www.portal.mena.org.eg

In addition to the continuation of the agency’s transmission via satellite, which started via the European Hot Bird satellite and moved to be via the Egyptian satellite Nilesat since its launch until now.

Also, the agency is about to launch the mass portal and other news services to confirm support for the new concept of citizen journalism and not to limit the agency’s work only to dealing with the media, in order to keep pace with the new in the field of web journalism or digital media, similar to the major international news agencies.
The agency has also developed a service for adding images appropriate to the news and reports that are broadcast.
Thus, the agency will have two websites on the Internet, one for subscribers, and the second for the public to broadcast bulletins and advanced news services, thus becoming the first of its kind among news agencies in the Middle East and the second of its kind in the world that has a public website to deal with visitors to by subscribers.

Objectives and Values ​​(ASA):

The goals and values ​​of the agency since its inception have focused on the following:

* Obtaining news from its various sources at home and abroad and following up local, regional and international events and developments moment by moment with accuracy, professionalism, credibility and impartiality, broadcasting and marketing them, as a regional news agency that provides – from this perspective – a conscious vision of events and developments of interest to the region, whether what happened in the same region Or related in different capitals of the world.

* Preparing various press materials including investigations, photos, research, studies and reports, and marketing them at home and abroad.

* Issuing specialized bulletins in the three languages, Arabic, English and French, in various political, economic, social, sports, scientific, cultural and environmental fields.

* Providing special news services to international news agencies and media correspondents residing in Cairo or the region.

* Providing its technical journalistic expertise to workers in the field of press, media and national news agencies in the Arab world, Africa and third world countries, through the Agency’s “Middle East Training Center”, which provides training courses in the fields of journalistic work for those interested in Egypt and abroad.
International cooperation:

* The Middle East News Agency has contracts of cooperation and news exchange with (30) Arab, regional and international news agencies. It is also a founding member of the Islamic News Agency, the African News Agency, the Non-Aligned Countries News Agencies Association, the Union of Arab News Agencies and the Association of Mediterranean News Agencies.

* The agency is also bound by agreements, cooperation protocols and activities with a number of international organizations concerned with press affairs, training, modernization and development, led by the German Friedrich Numann Foundation. To provide high-level training activities for the agency’s journalists, the Arab Network for Media Support, the Dutch Arab Network for Media Support, the German D-W academy, and others.

Administrative organization of the agency:

This daily effort that makes the agency like a beehive .. achieves its goals through an administrative organization .. provides work discipline and meets its needs flexibly and smoothly .. and leads to the speed and safety of positive communication between the various organs and sectors of the institution and stands at the top of this organization is the Chairman of the Board and the Editor-in-Chief who heads By virtue of his position, the agency’s board of directors through the administrative and technical support sectors.

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief:

The Acting Chairman and Editor-in-Chief manage the day-to-day work of the ten sectors included in the Agency’s administrative organization. The position of the Agency’s Chairman and Editor-in-Chief is currently occupied by Mr. Ali Hassan, one of the Agency’s sons, who worked in many of its various editorial departments throughout his tenure as the Agency.

Board of Directors:

The board of directors consists of twelve members besides the president, half of whom are appointed by the Shura Council based on the nomination of the chairman of the board of directors, and the other half are chosen by direct elections by the proxy staff. At least one month, and the chairman of the board of directors assumes the functions of the board while it is not in session and, by law, manages and directs the daily work of the agency.

General Assembly

The General Assembly consists of 30 members, half of whom are chosen by direct election from the agency’s employees.. The rest are appointed by a decision of the Shura Council, provided that a number of them are public figures. It is concerned with following up the performance of the board of directors and approving the work plans, programs, annual budgets and planning budgets for the agency.

editorial board

It is concerned with supervising the activities of the editorial agency and holds its meetings daily under the chairmanship of the editor-in-chief or his oldest deputy in case he is not present, in order to discuss and discuss developments on the scene as well as following up the work of correspondents at home and abroad. It is also concerned with selecting correspondents for external offices and all matters related to journalistic work. In its membership are deputy editor-in-chief and supervisors of the various departments.

Bulletins and news services

* The agency provides sixteen bulletins and news services at one time, broadcast over a period of at least eighteen hours a day, as the agency begins sending them daily from seven in the morning until one in the middle of the night, Cairo time, and the transmission continues throughout the twenty-four hours without stopping in the event of important events.

Bulletins and news services include:

Arabic Home Newsletter

It is directed to subscribers inside and outside Egypt, and focuses on covering various aspects of political, social, economic, cultural, sports, etc….with comprehensive coverage of the most important Arab, Middle Eastern and international news and events.
English and French publications

These two bulletins present the most important broadcasts of the Agency in Arabic, after translating it into English and French, and they are addressed to subscribers who speak or are interested in English and French inside and outside Egypt.

Special International Bulletin ( NDK )

It is a separate publication from the general bulletin and is concerned with political news in Egypt, the Arab region and the Middle East, with greater freedom of journalistic treatment and selection of the material.

Economic Bulletin

It is a daily bulletin broadcast in Arabic and is concerned with economic news in Egypt and the world, including currency rates, stock market movements, money markets and banks at home and abroad.

SMS

It is a distinguished service that depends on sending urgent news at the same moment as it occurs to subscribers via mobile phones via mobile companies. These services vary between political, economic, technical, sports, energy and petroleum.

Press investigations and photo service

The agency prepares a variety of photojournalistic investigations covering various fields of depiction of cultural, artistic, scientific, sports, historical, etc. life inside and outside Egypt. It also provides Egyptian and foreign press and media institutions with pictures of important events in Egypt.

* The agency also issues another distinguished set of specialized printed and online publications

P.R . Bulletin
It is issued daily in English and provides to the non-Arabic speaking reader with a summary of the most important news and commentaries published in newspapers issued in Egypt. This bulletin is distributed to embassies, press offices and foreign institutions in Cairo for a special subscription.

P.R . Bulletin
It is published bi-weekly in English and provides a comprehensive presentation of the most important news and issues published by party newspapers in Egypt.

The economic magazine M.E.N
It is issued weekly in English and provides a comprehensive presentation of the most important news and economic issues that concern those interested and working in the economic field in Egypt.

Thus, the number of bulletins broadcast and issued by the Agency is sixteen, between daily, half-weekly and weekly.

In its foreign news, the agency relies on a network of foreign offices spread across different continents of the world, where elite journalists from the agency or local correspondents work.

There is a plan to expand by establishing new offices in the next phase, with a special focus on Africa.

Training Center:

The Middle East News Agency Training Center opens the door for applications for its new course program every month or period. A group of senior media professionals and translators with long practical experience at the local and international levels lectures in these courses. The courses target graduates and students of various university faculties and those wishing to work in the fields of media and translation, media professionals and translators who wish to develop their abilities.