European news agencies expel Russian TASS
The EANA umbrella organisation no longer includes the Russian state agency in European cooperation.
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The European Alliance of News Agencies has expelled the Russian state news agency TASS from the organisation. The exclusion follows years in which TASS had already been suspended over concerns about independent reporting.
Ukrainian news organisation Ukrinform reported on Friday that TASS is no longer a member of the European Alliance of News Agencies, EANA. The organisation brings together European news agencies and works on cooperation and journalistic standards, among other things.
TASS was suspended by EANA in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The umbrella organisation said at the time that Russian regulations severely restricted the space for independent media and that TASS therefore no longer met the alliance’s principles.
In 2023, EANA members decided not to proceed with definitive expulsion; TASS remained suspended at that point. The step now reported makes that earlier temporary measure permanent, as far as can be inferred from public reporting.
The decision is not a ban on TASS and does not automatically change Dutch media access to Russian sources. It is, however, an institutional judgement by European news agencies on the conditions under which a news organisation can be regarded as an independent partner.
For news consumers, that distinction matters. A state news agency can publish factual information from official sources, but its institutional position, editorial freedom and the possibility of scrutiny by other media also help determine how reliable such information is as a news source.
EANA says in its public statutes that it represents the interests of news agencies and wants members to be able to operate as providers of impartial news. The expulsion fits into a broader European debate about propaganda, disinformation and the role of news agencies in wartime.
The step is chiefly symbolic and journalistic in significance. It does not change the content of individual TASS reports; editors must still check those reports by subject and against independent sources. The precise reasoning behind the new decision is described only briefly in the first public report.
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One story, several perspectives
What is established
- According to Ukrinform, EANA has expelled TASS.
- TASS has been suspended since 2022.
- EANA regards independent and impartial news provision as a guiding principle.
Left
Arguments European news organisations should distance themselves from state media that, from this perspective, form part of power propaganda and information warfare.
Values Press freedom, protecting democratic information and human rights.
Consequences Expulsion may strengthen trust in European journalism, but it may also reduce access to competing perspectives.
Centre
Arguments A professional umbrella organisation may set quality requirements, but newsrooms must assess each source individually and not judge it solely on institutional membership.
Values Journalistic independence, transparency and procedural due care.
Consequences A reasoned expulsion can clarify standards; a decision with limited supporting evidence may instead raise questions about consistency.
Right
Arguments The decision can be seen as ideological exclusion that restricts pluralism; from this perspective, readers should be able to compare different sources for themselves.
Values Free opinion-forming, open debate and distrust of institutional power blocs.
Consequences Greater source pluralism can encourage scrutiny, but without strong verification it can also normalise deception and state propaganda.
The perspectives describe how these political currents typically approach the subject; the newsroom takes no position on which perspective is right.
Fact-check Approved with corrections · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The expulsion itself is based on a current report by Ukrinform. The background was checked with EANA; the text makes clear that the new reasoning is publicly limited.
- confirmed EANA expelled TASS on 13 November 2026. — Current report by Ukrinform. source
- confirmed TASS was suspended by EANA in 2022. — EANA publication of 27 February 2022. source
- confirmed In 2023, TASS remained suspended and was not expelled. — EANA publication about the 2023 general assembly. source
- uncertain The new reasoning is described only briefly in public. — The current report found contains the expulsion but no complete decision document. source
1 correction(s) applied
- Was: The expulsion follows years in which TASS had already been suspended over concerns about independent reporting.Now: The expulsion follows an earlier suspension; in 2022, EANA linked that suspension to concerns about independent reporting. (The current source does not give the full reasoning for the new decision; the historical reason has therefore been attributed to EANA.)
Editor's note
The new expulsion was reported by Ukrinform; EANA’s public pages confirm the earlier suspension and the principles set out in its statutes. A detailed explanation of the new decision was not available.Sources
- European Alliance of News Agencies expels TASS — Ukrinform
- The European Alliance of News Agencies suspends TASS from Alliance pending exclusion decision — EANA
- EANA Statutes — European Alliance of News Agencies
More on this in Dutch media
- NU.nl — „tass eana”
- De Telegraaf — „tass eana”
- AD — „tass eana”