TASR Ended 2017 with Surplus of Almost €63,000
Bratislava, March 1 (TASR) – The News Agency of the Slovak Republic (TASR) ended the second half of 2017 with a surplus of €49,689, while TASR’s profits reached €62,951 for the whole of 2017, according to a report on TASR’s activities in the second half of 2017 that was approved by members of Parliament’s media committee on Thursday.
The report was presented to the committee by TASR general director Vladimir Puchala, who took over the post in September 2017.
The report states that in the evaluated period TASR was an efficient and useful agency both for clients and the public. “In the second half of 2017, TASR’s tasks, which are determined by the law, were met. TASR was free and independent in its news, which wasn’t written in favour of any political, economic, religious, ethnic or other interest group. The news service reflected on developments in Slovakia and abroad in an objective, balanced and up-to-date manner,” reads the document.
In the second half of 2017, the news agency issued 137,567 pieces of multimedia news, of which 76,678 were written stories, 6,851 were sound recordings, 49,810 were photographs and 4,228 were videos.
In addition, TASR was in September awarded the 2017 Prize for Excellence in News Agency Quality, given by the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) for creating a social networking aggregator called SomeCan. In 2016 the prize went to German agency DPA.
The report further stated that the agency has significantly accelerated and improved its news service. “Brief stories have become an innovative and practical element. Enabling the service for all towns and villages has made public information available for regions for non-commercial use and has opened up strong cooperation with the municipalities. The Hungarian-language news service for the ethnic-minority is a breakthrough in the agency’s history,” reads the document.
