Established in 1939, Bakhtar News Agency is the official news agency of the Afghan government, providing news content to all media in the country. The agency publishes in three languages (Dari, Pashto and English).


Media assets

News agency: Bakhtar News Agency

State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)


Ownership and governance

Bakhtar News Agency is subordinated to the Ministry of Information and Culture, which makes all the decisions related to the agency’s management, according to journalists specialized in Afghanistan.

Source of funding and budget

Bakhtar News Agency is entirely funded by the government, according to journalists specialized in Afghanistan.

Editorial independence

Being run as a government body, Bakhtar News Agency is editorially under the strict control of the authorities. There is no domestic statute that establishes the editorial independence of Bakhtar News Agency and no independent oversight mechanism to validate the agency’s independence.

September 2023