Pupils Association News Agency (PANA) is an Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian 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...

. It was formally launched in September 2002, and broadcasts news, poems, short stories and articles which mostly focus on events in cities other than the capital.

PANA was established as a joint effort of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the Ministry of Education. It is affiliated with the Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamic Republic News Agency

The Islamic Republic News Agency , or IRNA, is the official news agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is government-funded and controlled under the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The agency also publishes the newspaper Iran. , the Managing Director of IRNA is Ali Akbar...

 and the Student Organization

Iranian Students' News Agency

The Iranian Students News Agency is a news organization run by Iranian university students. Established on November 4, 1999 in order to report on news from Iranian universities it now covers a variety of national and international topics. Editors and correspondents are themselves students in a...

.

About 30,000 pupils work for the news agency on a voluntary basis.

PANA's managing director is Vahid Toufani.