In this capacity, AFP’s operations are restricted by a series of requirements first legislated in 1957, such as precluding opening the company’s shares to private investors and a requirement that AFP present a balanced budget for each year. 

AFP maintains an unsurpassed reputation for the integrity and independence of its reporting. The company’s 200 photographers, 1,200 reporters, and more than 2,000 stringers, located in over 160 countries, allow AFP to offer more extensive coverage than its competitors. Each day the company distributes more than two million words in French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. 

Moreover, AFP is the leading supplier of news and images to the Asian, African, and Middle Eastern regions. Through subsidiary AFX News, AFP also offers specialized coverage of the world’s financial markets. Its archives of seven million photographs, dating back to the 1930s, is one of the world’s largest. AFP operates editing facilities in Paris, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Montevideo, and Washington, D.C.  

According to encyclopedia.com