Algérie Presse Service (APS)

What is Algérie Presse Service (APS)?

Algérie Presse Service, in Arabic “وكالة الأنباء الجزائرية”, is the Algerian news agency. Its site, aps.dz, carries the Arabic name as its title and the footer line “وكالة الأنباء الجزائرية © 2026 جميع الحقوق محفوظة”.^[2]

The agency's own page describes its role: “تمارس وكالة الأنباء الجزائرية مهمة الخدمة العمومية من خلال تطوير إنتاج الأخبار العامة والمتخصصة”. That is, APS exercises a public-service mission by developing the production of general and specialised news.^[1] It states that it publishes “بعدة لغات (العربية والأمازيغية والإنجليزية والفرنسية والإسبانية والروسية...)”, in several languages, Arabic, Tamazight, English, French, Spanish and Russian among them.^[1]

The decree governing the agency's legal status could not be retrieved in a readable text, and the agency's own page gives no decree number.

What does Algérie Presse Service (APS) cover?

The home page of aps.dz lists a sports section, “رياضة”, among its main sections, with Algeria, presidency news, international, economy and culture.^[2] Its sports dispatches in French are published under the path aps.dz/fr/sports.^[3]

Broadcast rights. APS reported on 4 June 2026, in a dispatch filed under “sport collectif”: “L'Entreprise publique de télévision (EPTV) a conclu un accord avec le groupe beIN Sports, détenteur des droits de diffusion de la Coupe du monde 2026, portant sur l'acquisition des droits de retransmission des matchs de la sélection nationale algérienne ainsi que d'un certain nombre d'autres rencontres de la compétition mondiale.” The dispatch attributes this to “un communiqué de l'établissement”, a statement by the company.^[3] That is, the public television company acquired from beIN Sports the rights to the national team's matches and to other matches of the 2026 World Cup. The tournament ended in July 2026.

As retrieved on 27 September 2026, the French sports index page of aps.dz displayed a maintenance notice, “Nous améliorons votre expérience”, and no dated items.

How large is Algérie Presse Service (APS)?

No audited audience or subscriber figure for APS was retrieved; the figures here are the agency's own account of its network.^[1]

Its page describes “خمس (05) مديريات جهوية (الجزائر، وهران، قسنطينة، ورقلة وبشار)”, five regional directorates in Algiers, Oran, Constantine, Ouargla and Béchar, coordinating 58 wilaya offices. It states that it has “مكاتب دائمة في عدة عواصم، على غرار باريس، بروكسل، لندن، روما، مدريد، موسكو، عمان، القاهرة، داكار، تونس، نواكشوط، أديس أبابا وواشنطن”, that is permanent offices in several capitals, such as Paris, Brussels, London, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, Amman, Cairo, Dakar, Tunis, Nouakchott, Addis Ababa and Washington; the list is given as examples.^[1]

It describes its clients as “شبكة واسعة من المشتركين (مؤسسات وهيئات مختلفة، وسائل إعلام سمعية بصرية، صحافة مكتوبة وإلكترونية بالإضافة إلى مشتركين آخرين من شتى الميادين)”, a wide network of subscribers, among them institutions, audiovisual media, print and online press and others. It gives no number of subscribers.^[1]

Since when has Algérie Presse Service (APS) existed?

The agency's own page states: “تم إنشاء وكالة الأنباء الجزائرية في الفاتح ديسمبر 1961 بتونس”. That is, APS was created on 1 December 1961 in Tunis.^[1] That date is the agency's own account; no second source for it was retrieved.

No later date of reorganisation, such as a change of legal form, was established from a source retrieved.

Why does Algérie Presse Service (APS) matter in Algeria's sport?

APS is the national news agency, and its dispatches report the state's sporting arrangements; its report of 4 June 2026 is the source for the public television company's World Cup rights agreement.^[3]

The media law. Loi organique n° 23-14 of 27 August 2023 relative à l'information, published in the Journal Officiel n° 56 of 29 August 2023, provides in article 4 that information activities are carried on by media belonging to “des institutions publiques et les entreprises et organismes du secteur public”, to political parties, associations and trade-union organisations within the limits set by the laws governing them, and to Algerian natural persons or legal persons whose capital or shareholders are, in the article's word, “exclusivement” Algerian. Article 12 provides that any outlet receiving funding or material aid “doit être lié organiquement à l'organisme donateur”, and its second paragraph reads: “Le financement et/ou l'aide matérielle directe et indirecte de toute partie étrangère sont interdits, sous peine des sanctions pénales prévues par la loi.”^[4]

The monitor. Reporters Without Borders ranks Algeria 145th of 180 in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, with a score of 37.38. Its country page states: “In addition, government subsidies are granted only to state-owned media or to privately owned media outlets that support the government.” It also states: “A media law adopted in 2023 introduced new restrictions and sanctions, and banned Algerian media outlets from benefitting from any direct and indirect foreign funding or material assistance under penalty of heavy fines.” Its media landscape section opens: “The media landscape in Algeria has never been so deteriorated. The independent media are under pressure, journalists are often jailed and prosecuted, and several websites are blocked.”^[5] Those are the monitor's words.