Australia: 85-year-old AAP newswire to close in June

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - The Australian Associated Press (AAP) announced on Tuesday that it would shut down operations in June.

In an online statement, AAP chairman Campbell Reid said the news agency was "journalism's first responder."

"It is a great loss that professional and researched information provided by AAP is being substituted with the un-researched and often inaccurate information that masquerades as real news on the digital platforms," said Reid.

AAP was founded in 1935. The announcement said it would make its final transmission on June 26.

The move will affect 100 contracted photographers, 200 journalists and 300 other employees working in sports results, human resources, finance and administration besides hundreds more from subsidiaries.

The move was "acknowledged" by the federal parliament where opposition Australian Labor Party members held "thank you AAP" posters while Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison referred to "proud history here in the Australian parliament."

"The closure of Australia's AAP Newswire after 85 years has been described as a blow to democracy," said the statement on the AAP's website.

The newswire was funded by Nine Entertainment Co., Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Australia, The West Australian and Australian Community Media.

AAP Editor-in-Chief Tony Gillies said his team was "the most humble and hardest news people."

The move to close down the agency invited sharp criticism from The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance which described the closure as "a gross abandonment of responsibility by shareholders."

The union of Australian media houses also blamed the government saying it had failed to "effectively deal with digital content aggregators, search engines and social media, which has made news readily available for free online."