Broadcasting in the Soviet Union news and television news was provided almost entirely by the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, commonly known as TASS until 1991. Under the rule of Emperor Nikolai II, the first broadcasting system began in 1904, and evolved into TASS in 1925. TASS still exists today, transformed into the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia (ITAR-TASS). It occupies a Joseph Stalin-era building in Moscow, characterised by a bas-relief sculpture above the main entrance. However, much like its counterparts in cinema and the press, it has suffered since the break-up of Soviet Union. ITAR now broadcasts domestic news, while TASS reports the
Tasnim News Agency Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). On 10 April 2013 the IRGC chief Mohammad Ali Jafari visited the Tasnim headquarters and was quoted by the news agency saying "The faithful and Revolutionary media have today a very heavy duty in confronting anti-islamic and anti-human plots of the oppressors". Tasnim News Agency maintains a department staffed with dual language speakers of both English and Persian which translates some of the agency's articles into English. Tasnim News Agency Tasnim News Agency is a private news agency in Iran launched in 2012. Its purpose is to cover a variety of political, social, economic and international