United News Transfer Agency (Pulacan)
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 The iconic logo of the NCTC, used in some form since the 1960s | |
 NCTC's headquarters in Mohembo, Pulacan | |
Native name | Nechicoliztli Cepanca Tlanemacaliztli Cacahuaniliyotl (Nahuatl) |
|---|---|
| State-owned | |
| Industry | News agency |
| Founded | March 22, 1916 |
| Headquarters | Mmila Borobongwe 15, Mohembo , |
Number of locations | 83 offices, correspondents and bureaus in other countries (2024) |
Area served | Global Nahuasphere (primary market) |
| Services | Media |
Number of employees | 1260 |
The United News Transfer Agency (Nahuatl: Nechicoliztli Cepanca Tlanemacaliztli Cacahuaniliyotl), also known by its local initials NCTC, is an international news agency headquartered in Pulacan. It is the primary such agency in Pulacan, as well as the wider Nahua-speaking world. Founded in 1916, it is also one of the oldest newswire services still in operation. It employs around 1260 employees and numerous freelancers, including correspondents at 83 locations across the globe. The NCTC has a unique structure among news agencies; organized as a non-profit network of non-profit calpolleh, it is funded primarily through government funding. Though it is ostensibly a state-funded service, the NCTC functions as a public utility, with numerous rules and regulations established to ensure its editorial independence from government control. Additionally, the NCTC's member media companies voluntarily participate in the staffing and operating of the agency. Its role is seen as making news and information as widely available as possible. NCTC cooperates with 150 news media companies in Pulacan and abroad.
History
Upon its independence from the Heron Empire in 1907, control of the nascent electric telegraph network passed from colonial administrators to the national government. Initially, the network was retained solely for military logistics purposes, as it had been used during the colonial era. Throughout the 1910s, however, numerous calpolleh approached the government, seeking permission to use the telegraph network for business purposes. Pulacan's often rugged terrain made the telegraph advantageous, but also presented obstacles to installation. As such, the Secretariat of the Interior (which managed the postal system at the time) was tasked with expanding the network. In 1912, management and operation of installed civilian lines was spun off under the National Telegraph Agency.
The following year, a consortium of 15 journalistic organizations formed the Journalists' Telegraph Association to serve as a united organization to interface with the Telegraph Agency. Three years later, the Interior Secretariat, the Telegraph Agency, and the Journalists' Telegraph Association agreed to reform the latter into a state-funded entity to remove any financial barrier for media services to subscribe to the service, with the intent of maximizing potential access to the information for distribution.
The NCTC adopted Telex in the 1960s, both for communication between offices and with outside news media. The decade also saw numerous NCTC reporters cover the Third Uhlangan Civil War in modern-day Phansi Uhlanga. Initially appearing friendly to foreign journalists, the Cuhonhicah settler government engaged in a propaganda campaign in order to obscure its war crimes. Reporters would be embedded with select military units at the Cuhonhicah leadership's discretion; it was quickly revealed that the units selected were specially appointed to engage in either staged or highly-regulated encounters as a performance. In the meantime, media personnel attempting to learn more about the conflict beyond the bounds of state approval were subject to mistreatment. 15 correspondents of the NCTC perished during the war, either as casualties near areas of fighting or, more commonly, at the hands of security forces. NCTC reporters would receive particularly brutal handling from the Tlaloc Battalions, formations of extremist Pulatec foreign volunteers. These military units, initially created as internal security forces, quickly devolved into acting as mobile terror squads. The NCTC was the first agency to report on their primary role in the mass killing of civilians during the genocide known as the Hasanya.