Polish Press Agency is a Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

's news agency

News agency

A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire or news service.-History:The oldest news agency is Agence...

 owned by Polska Agencja Prasowa S.A., distributing political, economic, social, and cultural press releases as well as events info and online news, in a similar way to Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

, Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...

 and AP

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

.

Polska Agencja Prasowa S.A. was incorporated in 1918 as the Polish Telegraphic Agency

Polish Telegraphic Agency

Polish Telegraphic Agency was a Polish state-owned news agency established in 1918. As the only such agency in Poland at the time it was the official supplier of news on Poland both for the Polish press and foreign media . Since 1927 the PAT also issued a weekly newsreel...

 (PTA). In 1944 following the Soviet entry into occupied Poland, the company was taken over by the Polish communists and set up under its current name as the local alternative to the still functioning Polish Telegraphic Agency loyal to the Polish government in exile

Polish government in Exile

The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...

 since 1939 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. During the reign of communism in Poland PAP was a government institution and the official communist mouthpiece. In 1990 after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of communism in Europe, the company was reformed and in 1991 the original PTA was finally merged into PAP to form the present day Agency.