AFP chairman Hoog seeks second mandate

Agence France-Presse's chairman and chief executive Emmanuel Hoog announced Monday he was seeking a second mandate at the helm of the global news agency. The 50-year-old Hoog, whose three-year mandate expires next month, said he wanted another term "because all reform takes time, and reasoned action can only be built over time." He said his priorities would remain to redesign the agency's business tools and delivery system, renovate AFP's headquarters in central Paris, revise the agency's relationship with the French state, dynamise sales in France and expand global sales. Agence France-Presse is an independent agency with journalists in 165 countries. A 1957 law gives AFP a unique statute designed to guarantee editorial independence. It has no capital or shareholders and must balance its accounts. The chairman is elected by a 15-member board, which includes representatives of the French state. AFP has 2,260 staff and freelance correspondents around the world. It covers the world 24 hours a day in six languages.