Rastriya Samachar Samiti or RSS (which in Nepali means National News Agency) is the longest serving news agency in Nepal with a history going back to 1961 when it was created through the merger of two privately owned news agencies.
Media assets
News agency: RSS
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
RSS is a fully government-owned company run by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.
Source of funding and budget
Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) is majority funded by the government. State subsidies account for the largest part of the agency’s budget, according to local experts. RSS also receives money from a state advertising fund used to finance the media in Nepal, according to data from local experts and journalists.
Editorial independence
Like all state media in Nepal, RSS is known as pro-government, its editorial coverage being visibly slanted in the government’s favor, according to local experts.
No domestic statute and no independent assessment or oversight mechanism to validate the agency’s editorial independence have been identified.
September 2023