Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha

The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) is the national news agency of Bangladesh. It was founded on January 1, 1972 by government order, by transforming the then regional office Dhaka of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) as the national news agency of the independent country. The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha is the biggest news agency having 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 office in the national capital city Dhaka and port city Chittagong with 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 staffs, among the number of journalists is 91 and non-journalists is 97.

The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha supplies news from home and abroad to radio, television and newspapers through 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).