TASR Released over 136,000 Multimedia Stories in 1H19
Bratislava, October 8 (TASR) – The News Agency of the Slovak Republic (TASR) in the first half of this year released a total of 136,033 multimedia products, of which 71,836 were text stories, 8,518 sound recordings, 52,223 photographs and 3,456 video clips, according to a report on TASR’s activities in 1H19 that was acknowledged by the parliamentary culture and media committee on Tuesday.
TASR generated a surplus of €316,486 in the first half of 2019, as its incomes of €3,049,860 topped its expenditures of €2,733,374.
“Concerning incomes, the agency met 51.67 percent of its annual goal and spent 48.06 percent of the expenditures budgeted for the whole year,” said TASR general director Vladimir Puchala when presenting the results at the committee meeting, adding that TASR has 136 employees.
Meanwhile, Puchala presented priority areas to which TASR’s individual editorial desks paid attention. “The main events that dominated TASR’s news service in the monitored period included the presidential election and the European Parliament elections, preparations for the 75th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising [SNP], activities marking the Year of M.R. Stefanik, as well as Brexit,” he said.
Concerning the foreign news service, TASR covered Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini’s meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Russia, and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanjahu in Israel.
Puchala emphasised cooperation with significant world agencies, a guarantee of verified foreign information sources. “In the monitored period TASR signed contracts with 22 European news agencies. As of January 2019 it launched contract-based cooperation with the world’s third largest news agency, France’s AFP,” he added.
Puchala also mentioned an information service covering the activities of EU bodies. In addition to external cooperation and ties with the EU Representation in Slovakia and the EP Information Office in Slovakia, the agency provided this service via its permanent correspondent in Brussels and via the personal presence of agency editors at official talks held by EU institutions.
