Petra's news bulletins reflect the diversity of opinions in Jordanian society and further the cause of democracy in the Kingdom.
PETRA increased its daily working hours to 18, including Fridays and official holidays. However, it can work around the clock in times of emergency. The staffs also increased to reach 238 employees, 135 of them are journalists who enjoy membership of the Jordan Press Association (JPA). PETRA is a fully-fledged professional body that participated actively in the inception of the JPA.
PETRA is an active member in the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), and the Non-Aligned Countries' News Agencies Pooling.
It has correspondents in Cairo, Copenhagen, New York, Tokyo, Bonn, Paris, Gaza, Ramallah, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain, Moscow, London, Kuwait, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Sana'a and Bucharest, Baghdad, Manama and Beirut.
PETRA became an independent entity in June 2004, following the dissolvement of the Ministry of Information. A special ordinance was enacted to give PETRA financial and administrative independence and to specify the powers of the Agency's Council and those of the Director General.
The new ordinance grants the agency the right to sell some of its services to willing subscribers
PETRA provides news services in Arabic and English on its main outlet. The average Arabic daily news dispatches is 70-90, whereas this stands at 20-30 news items for the English bulletin. These figures might change according to daily events and activities inside and outside Jordan.
PETRA provides photos of the daily events and activities covered on its website. It provides direct dispatches to 22 subscribers, including Arab and foreign news agencies' offices in Amman.
In 1997, PETRA started a TV filming and editing unit funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that is part of a studio. In early 2005, the unit was upgraded.
In 2005 too, a training center was founded in PETRA, equipped with the necessary computers and a data show. Many training courses have been held for Petra's journalists and media persons from governmental institutions since its foundation. The center, funded by UNESCO, longs to be a regional training center for journalists.
It has come a long way since news bulletins were distributed internally through systems that feed communication lines and the mechanical tele-printers, that later changed to computer sets, PETRA has now fully computerized news services.
