The Ethiopian News Agency ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ዜና አገልግሎት ''Ye-Ityopya Zéna Agelgelot'' (IZA) or ENA) is the official

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswir ...

of the

Government of Ethiopia The government of Ethiopia () is the federal government of Ethiopia. It is structured in a framework of a federal parliamentary republic, whereby the prime minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. T ...

. It is the oldest news organization in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. 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 Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...

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 The House of Peoples' Representatives is the lower house of the Ethiopian Federal Parliamentary Assembly. Located in the capital Addis Ababa, the House has 547 members. All are elected in theory for five-year term in single-seat constituencies. ...

. Its autonomy is very limited, with the government having full control. It has about three dozen branches across the country.

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