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Agence France-Presse (AFP) is the oldest news agency in the world. It is also the largest French agency and the third largest news agency in the world. A news agency is an organization journalists established to supply news reports to organizations in the news trade: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. ...

Charles Havas

The agency is based in Paris, with regional centres in Washington, Hong Kong, Nicosia and Montevideo and bureaux in 110 countries. It sends out news in French, English, Arabic, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Russian. The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... Nicosia, Cyprus Nicosia, known locally as Lefkosia (Greek: Λευκωσία) or Lefkoşa (Turkish), population 177,410 (1992), 200,686 (2001), is the capital of Cyprus and of the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. ... Independence Plaza Montevideo from space, March 1997 Independence Plaza, c. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Arabic (العربية al-arabiyyah, or less formally arabi) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ...

AFP was founded in 1835 by Charles-Louis Havas as Agence Havas. 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Status

AFP head office, Paris

AFP head office 1944, Paris

AFP is a nonprofit autonomous public corporation chartered under a specific 1957 law, operating commercially and independently of the French government. It is administered by a CEO and a board comprising 15 members: 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... // French politics under the Fifth Republic After Charles de Gaulle had the constitution of the French Fifth Republic adopted in 1958, France was ruled by successive right-wing administrations until 1981. ... Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the job of having the ultimate executive responsibility or authority within an organization or corporation. ...

• 8 representatives of the French press;
• 2 representatives of the AFP personnel;
• 2 representatives of the public services of radio and television;
• 3 representatives from the public services subscribing to the agency (one named by the prime minister, another by the minister of finances, another by the minister of foreign affairs).

The board elects the CEO for a renewable term of three years. Press is a general term having a number of related meanings stemming from the original definition of pressing as the physical action of applying force: Things relating to Metalworking: Machine press, a machine that shapes material by the application of pressure; Flypress, a machine that cuts material by pressing with... Human Resources has at least two meanings depending on context. ... The Prime Minister of France (Premier ministre de la France) is the functional head of the Cabinet of France. ... In 1589, the four French Secretaries of State became specialized, with one of the secretaries responsible for foreign affairs. ...

AFP also has a superior council charged with ensuring that the agency operates according to its statuses, which mandate absolute independence and neutrality. Neutral means balanced between two or more opposites. ...

The primary client of AFP is the French government, which purchases subscriptions for its various services. In practice, those subscriptions are somewhat a subsidy to AFP. AFP statutes prohibit direct government subsidies. This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Dispute with Google

In March 2005, AFP sued Google for $17.5 million, alleging that Google News infringed on its copyright because "Google includes AFP’s photos, stories and news headlines on Google News without permission from Agence France Presse."[1] It was also alleged that Google ignored a cease-and-desist order, though Google counters that it has opt-out procedures which AFP could have followed but did not. March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... Google, Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG), is a U.S. public corporation, initially established as a privately-held corporation in 1998, that designed and manages the Internet Google search engine. ... Google News is an automated news compilation service provided by Google Inc. ...

It is possible that AFP will make additional arguments in court that it has not yet made in public, but currently, many pundits are confused by the decision to sue [2][3][4] because Google does not display the full article on its site, provides a link to one of AFP's 600 online clients such as Singapore's Channel NewsAsia (which presumably benefits AFP because more people view the article and advertising), and because the articles are available via the providers' websites regardless of Google's actions. It was argued that had AFP wanted to prevent free use of its articles, it should have asked its providers to require subscriptions rather than suing Google. Additionally, "in 2002, a federal appeals court ruled that Web sites may reproduce and post 'thumbnail' or down-sized versions of copyrighted photographs," so Google News' thumbnails are likely legal.[5] Channel NewsAsia (Abbreviation: CNA, Chinese: 亚洲新闻台, 亞洲新聞台) is a pan-Asian news channel based in Singapore and owned by Mediacorp. ...

External links

• Official home page
• Official history