The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) is Bangladesh's national news agency. It was founded on January 1, 1972, by a government order, transforming the then-regional office Dhaka of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) into the national news agency of the independent country. The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha is the biggest news agency, having a strong network across the country. Journalist and poet Faiz Ahmed was its first editor and general manager. The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha covers mainly the national news of Bangladesh, including the activities of the government, diplomatic affairs, socio-political events, economy, finance, sports, culture, law, and parliamentary affairs.
The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha started with two bureau offices in the national capital city of Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong, with a staff of about a dozen journalists and some technical and general employees. Now, it has bureau offices in Sylhet, Rajshahi, Rangamati, Barisal, Bogra, Khulna, and Rangpur, with newsagents in all 64 districts of Bangladesh. At present, it has 165 staff, with 91 journalists and 97 non-journalists.
The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha supplies news from home and abroad to radio, television, and newspapers through the Internet, e-mail, fax, etc. It distributes news in two languages, English and Bengali. Surprisingly, its Bengali service started on 21 February 1998. The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha collects important news of the world from these four international news agencies, Reuters (United Kingdom), AFP (Agence France Presse), Xinhua news agency (China), and PTI (Press Trust of India) by Internet, e-mail, and fax set up at the office of the news agency. Besides these four agencies, it has also news exchange agreements with APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), Bernama (Malaysia), Antara (Indonesia), IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency - Iran), Kabar (Kyrgyzstan), Rastriya Samachar Samiti (Nepal), Anadolu (Turkey), VNA (Vietnam News Agency), TNA (Thailand News Agency), Korean Central News Agency (North Korea or People's Republic of Korea).
