Ethiopian News Agency

rdf:langString Ethiopian News Agency

rdf:langString The Ethiopian News Agency (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ዜና አገልግሎት Ye-Ityopya Zéna Agelgelot (IZA) or ENA) is the official news agency of the Government of Ethiopia. It is the oldest news organization in Ethiopia. IZA's inception dates back to 1942, when a news distribution service was opened as part of the Press Department, which was within the Press and Information Bureau. In 1943 the service became called "Agence Direction" or "Agence Direcsione", and was under the Ministry of Pen (Tsehafi Tae'zaz, in Amharic). It can be argued that it was the first national wire service in Africa, as no other African country had an indigenous service of the kind, due to colonialism, wherein social, political and economic institutions were established by, and made to serve, the interests of the colonial powers. Agence Direction closed in 1947 due to budget constraints in the Ministry of Pen. In 1954 Emperor Haile Selassie was embarking on a world tour and Agence Direction reopened so that Ethiopia could receive news of the tour. There was no further significant development in the next 10 years, except for a few attempts at expanding the service locally. Beginning in late 1963, Agence Direction began to make its presence felt among the public through newspapers and radio broadcasting. Its name was changed to Ethiopian News Source in 1964, then to its present name of Ethiopian News Agency in 1967. In 1995 it became a semi-autonomous agency under a board that is accountable to the House of Peoples' Representatives. Its autonomy is very limited, with the government having full control. It has about three dozen branches across the country.