The Middle East News Agency (MENA) is a

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 ...

based in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. It is run by the Egyptian government.

History and profile

The MENA was founded on 15 December 1955 as a joint stock company owned by Egyptian press establishments. The agency, based in Cairo, began its operations on 28 February 1956. The owner of the agency became the Egyptian government in 1962. In 1978, the agency's owner became the Shura Council. In 1980, a board of directors was established and began to run the agency. It was later attached to the Ministry of Information. Mustafa Naguib is among the former chiefs of the agency. Mahfuz Al Ansari also served in the post. In July 2005 he was replaced by Abdullah Hassan as

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

. In June 2014, Alaa Heidar was appointed editor-in-chief of the agency. The agency had cooperation with nearly 25 news agencies in the 1990s. It offers news in three languages, namely

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and French. It has following six major services: (1) Local Arabic news of which target audience is those subscribers living in Egypt and covers political, social, economic, culture and sports news in the

Arab world The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

and internationally. (2) Press services which include features news analysis, and photo services and international sectors such as culture, art, science, sports and history. (3) Publications in print which informs the subscribers about printed daily, biweekly and weekly. (4) ''Cairo Press Review'' which is a daily English-language publication, offering news published in the

Egyptian newspapers The number of Arabic newspapers in Egypt was about 200 in 1938. There were also 65 newspapers published in languages other than Arabic, such as Turkish, French and English. By 1951 Arabic language newspapers numbered to about 400, while 150 were ...

. (5) ''Party Press Review'' news which is a biweekly publication in English about the main news published in the party newspapers in Egypt and (6) The ''MEN'' (Economic Magazine) which is a weekly English publication and offers the main economic news concerning those who are part of the

economy of Egypt The economy of Egypt used to be a highly centralized economy, focused on import substitution under president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1954–1970). During the rule of president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (2014–present), the economy follows Egypt's 203 ...

. On 5 February 2014 the agency started a news website, called ''Bawabet Sharq Al Awsat''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Middle East News Agency 1955 establishments in Egypt Arab news agencies Government agencies established in 1955 Mass media in Cairo News agencies based in Egypt Publicly funded broadcasters State media Government agencies of Egypt

History and profile

See also

References