The Emirates News Agency, WAM, (Wakalat Anba'a al-Emarat), was established in November 1976 by decree of the Minister of Information and Culture of the United Arab Emirates. Transmission of its Arabic language service commenced on 18^th June 1977, and of its English language service in December 1978. Transmission is from 08.00 am until 01.00 am, except on special occasions, when transmission times can be extended.

     WAM is a member of the Group of Arab Gulf Co-operation Council newsagencies, the Federation of Arab News Agencies, FANA, the Islamic Newsagencies Union, the Pool of Non-Aligned Newsagencies and of OANA.

     WAM has a total of 180 employees inside the United Arab Emirates, with 22 foreign reporters in countries elsewhere in the region and in major international capitals. Its headquarters is in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, with other offices in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah, Fujairah, Al Ain and Medinat Zayed.

     It has a total of 30 reporters outside the UAE, with offices in the Arab cities of Cairo, Beirut, Rabat, Riyadh, Damascus, Sanaa, Algiers, Jerusalem, Gaza, Khartoum, Amman, Baghdad, Tunis and Tripoli. Other offices and reporters are located in London, Paris, Brussels, Geneva, Berlin, Moscow, Washington, New York, Tehran, Islamabad, New Delhi, Seoul, Tokyo, Istanbul and Canberra.

     The Emirates News Agency also operates a website, with services in both Arabic and English. www.wam.org.ae

     Since it was established, WAM has kept abreast of changes in technology, and now distributes its news and picture services by satellite, both locally and internationally. Over 90 per cent of its photographs are now available in digital format, which has helped both to expedite performance and to cut costs and time.

     WAM is a major arm of the Ministry of Information & Culture in terms of implementing the Ministrys media policy. It provides daily news coverage of official and other events throughout the country and is one of the key sources of information for all media establishments in the Emirates.  It provides coverage of around 85-90 per cent of official activities, as well as the activities of official delegations abroad.

     In 2001, WAM transmitted a total of 44,000 news items, of which the majority were related to local events. It also filed 10,000 stories on Arab and Islamic events and 6,000 on other international events, while it also distributed a total of 4,500 television and picture stories, covering both local and overseas events.

     A total of 220 establishments receive the WAM service, including all of the local media, a number of Ministries and UAE corporations and all UAE diplomatic missions abroad, as well as the foreign media. 

     WAM also plays an important role in documenting development in the country, and in providing information to researchers and others.

     Via satellite and computer networks, WAM receives the transmission of 30 Arab, Gulf and international news agencies. It has also co-operation and news exchange agreements with 20 Arab, Asian and international news agencies, part of an effort to strengthen collaboration between the media of  the UAE and other countries.

     During 2002, WAM signed three new agreements for bilateral co-operation and exchange expertise, information and news with the Sudan News Agency, SUNA, the Malaysian National News Agency, BERNAMA, and the Russian News Agency, NOVOSTI.

     In 2001, it signed co-operation agreements with the Chinese News Agency, XINHUA, the Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, the Jordanian News Agency, PETRA, the Indonesian News Agency, ANTARA, and the Yemeni News Agency, SABA.

     WAM also devotes considerable attention to the training of its own staff, and those of other UAE media establishments. In 2001, a training course was organised, together with the BBC, on Practical Journalism in an open society with the participation of a number of local journalists from different media institutions, while 27 local editors were sent in 2000 and 2001 on training courses in Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon, Tunisia, India and Syria.