ST. PETERSBURG, July 27. /TASS/. The TASS news agency plans to expand its presence on the African continent by opening news offices in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov said.

"TASS correspondents are now successfully working in Egypt, Morocco and South Africa, and soon we will open [offices] in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe. We are always ready to support the African correspondents whom you send to do the same work in Russia," Kondrashov said at the opening of the session of the second Russia-Africa Media Forum of senior managers of leading news agencies.

The TASS General Director recalled that the agency is trying to comprehensively develop mutually beneficial cooperation with African partners. "In addition to existing agreements, memorandums on cooperation with agencies from 16 countries of the continent have been worked out and are being prepared for signing. TASS is grateful to the Russian Foreign Ministry and Russian embassies for supporting this important work," he added.

Reviving traditions

As Kondrashov pointed out, TASS has recently successfully brought back news feeds in foreign languages. "Starting in 2022, TASS revived the output of such feeds in all UN languages. And we have our feeds in English, French and Arabic available free of charge to all news agencies and other users in Africa," the head of the agency stressed, "You have our new offers in your participant packs, complete with valid logins and passwords. They will allow those who have not yet subscribed to the TASS feed to do so in St. Petersburg."

Responsible approach

"Together with its partners, TASS has organized a series of seminars and master classes for professional African journalists and students with the participation of the agency’s experienced journalists," Kondrashov added, "Since March of this year TASS reporters have conducted master classes for more than 150 young journalists from leading local and international media, traveling to Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa and Egypt."

He also mentioned the multi-year joint work between TASS and the Rossiya-24 TV channel, the TV program "Formula of Power." "Eight video interviews with the leaders of African countries have already been published, the last one on the holding of the first Russia-Africa summit," he concluded.