AFP's Statutes: The Key Articles

French Act of Parliament n°57-32 dated January 10, 1957, defining the statutes of Agence France-Presse

Extracts from the consolidated version dated February 20, 1981 [translation by SOS-AFP]

Article 1

Is hereby created, under the name of Agence France-Presse, an autonomous civil entity functioning under commercial rules.
The said body having as its purpose:

1. To seek out, in France and all of the French Union as well as abroad, the elements of a complete and objective information service.
2. To place that information at the disposal of users in exchange for payment.

Article 2

The activities of Agence France-Presse are subjected to the following fundamental obligations:

1. Agence France-Presse may under no circumstances take account of influences or considerations liable to compromise the exactitude or the objectivity of the information it provides; it may under no circumstances fall under the control, either de facto or de jure, of any ideological, political or economic grouping.
2. Agence France-Presse must, to the full extent that its resources permit, develop and enhance its organisation so as to provide French and foreign users with exact, impartial and trustworthy information on a regular and uninterrupted basis.
3. Agence France-Presse must, to the full extent that its resources permit, ensure the existence of a network of facilities giving it the status of a worldwide information service.

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External web sites:

• Full text of the statutes on the "Légifrance" site (in French)
• The official AFP web site

Photo: the AFP headquarters building in central Paris

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