Company type
24 June 1941 (as Sovinformburo)
Zubovsky Boulevard 4, Moscow, Russia
- Dmitry Kiselyov
- Margarita Simonyan
- Anna Gavrilova
Rossiya Segodnya (owned and operated by federal government, as unitary enterprise)
RIA Novosti (Russian: РИА Новости), sometimes referred to as RIAN (РИАН) or RIA (РИА), is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013, by a decree of Vladimir Putin, it was liquidated and its assets and workforce were transferred to the newly created Rossiya Segodnya agency.[1] On 8 April 2014, RIA Novosti was registered as part of the new agency.[2]
RIA Novosti is headquartered in Moscow. The chief editor is Anna Gavrilova.
Content[edit]
RIA Novosti was scheduled to be closed down in 2014; starting in March 2014, staff were informed that they had the option of transferring their contracts to Rossiya Segodnya or sign a redundancy contract.[3] On 10 November 2014, Rossiya Segodnya launched the Sputnik multimedia platform as the international replacement of RIA Novosti and Voice of Russia. Within Russia itself, however, Rossiya Segodnya continues to operate its Russian language news service under the name RIA Novosti with its ria.ru website.
The agency published news and analyses of social-political, economic, scientific and financial subjects on the Internet and via e-mail in the main European languages, as well as in Persian, Japanese and Arabic.[4][5] It had a correspondent network in the Russian Federation, CIS and over 40 non-CIS countries.[4] Its clients include the presidential administration, Russian government, Federation Council, State Duma, leading ministries and government departments, administrations of Russian regions, representatives of Russian and foreign business communities, diplomatic missions, and public organizations.[4]
The last editor-in-chief of RIA Novosti was Svetlana Mironyuk,[4] the first woman appointed to the role in the agency's history. According to the organisation's Charter, enterprise's property was federally owned (because federal unitary enterprise) and was indivisible.[6][7] According to the agency, it was partially government-subsidized (2.7–2.9 billion roubles in 2013[8]), but maintained full editorial independence.[9]
History[edit]
Soviet Union[edit]
RIA Novosti's history dates back to 24 June 1941, when by a resolution of the USSR Council of People's Commissars and the Communist Party Central Committee, "On the Establishment and Tasks of the Soviet Information Bureau", the state-run Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformburo) was set up under the USSR Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee. Its main task was to oversee work covering international, military events and the events of the country's domestic life in periodicals and on the radio (from 14 October 1941, to 3 March 1942, was based in Kuibyshev – historically, Samara).[4]
The bureau's main task was to compile reports on the situation on the frontline of the war, work on the home front, and the partisan movement for the radio, newspapers and magazines. Sovinformburo directed the activity of the All-Slavonic Committee, Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Women, Anti-Fascist Committee of the Soviet Youth, Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Scientists, and the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (liquidated on Stalin's orders in 1948, all members murdered). In 1944, a special bureau on propaganda for foreign countries was set up as part of Sovinformburo.[4]
Through 1,171 newspapers, 523 magazines and 18 radio stations in 23 countries, Soviet embassies abroad, "friendship societies", trade unions, women's, youth and scientific organizations, Sovinformburo informed readers and listeners "about the struggle of the Soviet people against Fascism and in the post-war years about the main areas of Soviet domestic and foreign policies".[4]
Sovinformburo heads included A.S. Shcherbakov (1941–45), S. A. Lozovsky (1945–48) and Y.S. Khavinson, D.A. Polikarpov.[4]
(in Russian)
