Pan-African News Agency (PANA)

Also referred to as Agence d'information panafricaine (AIPA) and Agence panafricaine d'information (API).

HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS

The Pan-African News Agency was founded on 20 July 1979 in Addis Ababa, with the adoption of a convention by African Ministers of Information. PANA took over the activities of the Union des agences d'informations Africaines, which had been set up in April 1963 in Tunis.

PANA was officially inaugurated and commenced news agency activities on 25 May 1983. PANA is a specialised agency of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and has its headquarters in Dakar, Senegal, with regional offices in Khartoum, Sudan; Lusaka, Zambia; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Lagos, Nigeria; and Tripoli, Libya.

RELEVANT TREATIES/PROTOCOLS ETC

OAU Charter
The OAU Charter was adopted on 23 May 1963. South Africa was admitted to the OAU on 23 May 1994 and the OAU Charter became binding on South Africa on that same date.

PANA Convention

GENERAL COMMENTS

All member states of the OAU are members of PANA. South African officially became a member of PANA after becoming a member of the OAU on 23 May 1994. The Seventh Ordinary Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Information took place at Sun City in October 1994. This was the first time that an OAU-related activity took place on South African soil