Agenzia Stefani

Agenzia Stefani was the leading press agency in Italy from the mid-19th century until the end of World War II. It was founded by Guglielmo Stefani on 26 January 1853 in Turin, and was closed on 29 April 1945 in Milan.

Telegrafia privata - Agenzia Stefani (Private Telegraph - Stefani Agency) was created on January 26, 1853 in Turin by Guglielmo Stefani, who was of Venetian origin and was the director of the newspaper Gazzetta Piemontese, with support from Camillo Cavour.

Under the Cavour government, the agency gained huge advantages through the granting of secret funds while the Statuto Albertino banned privileges and private monopolies. The radical press, meanwhile, suffered from restrictions on freedom of information. As well, Agenzia Stefani, being in a monopoly situation, became a government tool for media control of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

After the death of Guglielmo Stefani, in 1861, the agency resurrected its collaboration with British agency Reuters and French agency Agence France-Presse (Havas). It was this, the world's first news agency, that acquired 50% of Agenzia Stefani in 1865.

As an unofficial government agency, the "Stefani" followed different transfers of Italian capital cities, from Turin to Florence in 1865, then to Rome in 1871

In 1881, Hector Friedländer took control and kept it for 37 years. Under his direction, the agency remained close to the government, contributing strongly to blunting the opinions of the press towards the controversial events of the era, such as Battle of Adwa (1896), Bava-Beccaris massacre (1898), the assassination of Umberto I of Italy (1900), Italo-Turkish War (1911-1912) and the casual changes in international alliances preceding the First World War.

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