Philippine News Agency (PNA) is the official news agency of the Philippines Government. It was established back in 1973 and has had a history of harsh censorship since the years of President Ferdinand Marcos when it was used as a censorship agency trained to control the editorial coverage of the news media across the country.
Media assets
News agency: PNA
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
PNA is subordinated to the News and Information Bureau (NIB), an agency run by the Presidential Communication Office (PCO).
Source of funding & budget
PNA draws the largest part of its budget from the state budget of the Philippines government, according to data from PNA annual reports. In 2020, PNA had a total budget of PHP 120m (US$ 2.5m), more than 90% of it coming from the state budget. No more recent annual reports about the company’s activities were released.
In recent years, the Presidential Administration has made fresh investments in PNA’s operations as part of its efforts to modernize the state media outlets to make them more competitive in the digital economy.
Editorial independence
PNA is fully controlled by the Presidential Administration, which is the main decision-maker in all matters related to the agency’s operations, including its editorial agenda.
The Presidential Administration has discretionary power in all aspects related to PNA’s operations.
No independent assessment mechanism to validate the PNA’s editorial performance has been identified.
October 2023