The State Information Agency (russian: Государственное информационное агентство) better known by its abbreviation RES (russian: РEC) is the

State media State media or government media are media outlets that are under financial and/or editorial control of the state or government, directly or indirectly. There are different types of state and government media. State-controlled or state-run media a ...

agency of the South Ossetian government.

History

RES was founded on December 2, 1995, by the Ministry of Information and Press during the middle of an uneasy peace between Georgia and South Ossetia that lasted from 1992 to 2008, following the conclusion of the South Ossetia war. The agency was named after Mount Res, a mountain located on the border of

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and South Ossetia, which was described by Ossetian poet Khajumar Pliyev as a symbol of Ossetian unity. The agency opened its website on April 7, 2003, which is one of the few free and readily available source of digital news in South Ossetia. The agency operated independently until August 9, 2016, when it was taken over by the Information and Press Committee of the

Parliament of South Ossetia The Parliament of South Ossetia is the unicameral legislature of the partially recognized Republic of South Ossetia. The 34 members of parliament are elected using a mixed system of Party-list proportional representation (17) and single-member di ...

. As of 2024 the agency has been led by journalist May Kharebova. Due to the government's direct control of the agency, its independence has been criticized, namely by the ''

Freedom House Freedom House is a non-profit, majority U.S. government funded organization in Washington, D.C., that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Wil ...

'' for almost exclusively posting pro-government and pro-Russian stories and opinions. Despite this, the agency has occasionally been cited in Western Media such as '' Radio Free Europe'' as a reliable source for the opinions of the South Ossetian government.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:State Information Agency Newspapers established in 1995 History of South Ossetia