TASS After 1971, TASS was elevated to the status of State Committee at the Government of the Soviet Union. The agency was frequently used as a front organization by the Soviet intelligence agencies, such as the NKVD (later KGB) and Main Intelligence Directorate, with TASS employees serving as informants. In 1959, Alexander Alexeyev was dispatched to Cuba on a fact-finding mission, ostensibly working for TASS. In January 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a Presidential Decree signed by Boris Yeltsin re-defined status of TASS and renamed it the "Information Telegraph Agency of Russia". In May 1994 The Russian Government
Islamic Republic News Agency Islamic Republic News Agency The Islamic Republic News Agency (), or IRNA, is the official news agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is government-funded and controlled under the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The agency also publishes the newspaper "Iran". , the Managing Director of IRNA is Mohammad Khodaddi. IRNA has 60 offices in Iran and 30 more in various countries around the world. In 1934, Pars Agency was established by the Foreign Ministry of Iran (Persia) as the country's official national news outlet. For the next six years it operated under the Iranian Foreign Ministry