AFP

AFP (Agence France-Presse) is listed in the News Agencies section of our French press directory. It traces its line to Agence Havas, founded in Paris by Charles-Louis Havas in 1835 — the first news agency anywhere — and took its present name and form at the Liberation in 1944.

With Reuters and the Associated Press it is one of the three global wires, and the only one headquartered in continental Europe. Its dispatches, photographs and video reach subscribers in six languages.

Key Facts

Founded: 1835 as Agence Havas; re-established as AFP in 1944

Headquarters: Paris, France

Status: An autonomous public body under the statute of 1957, owned by no shareholder and by no government

Languages: French, English, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and German

Reach: Bureaux in some 150 countries

Independence by Statute

The 1957 law that governs AFP forbids it from being controlled by any political, commercial or ideological interest, and bars the state from holding capital in it — a deliberate answer to the agency's wartime history, when its predecessor was taken over by the Vichy administration.

Coverage

International news with particular depth in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, plus a large photo desk and one of the earliest and largest digital fact-checking operations in the industry.