Antara is the official news agency in Indonesia. It supplies news content to most of the country’s news media as well as to foreign news outlets. Antara was established in 1937 during the Dutch colonial rule.
Media assets
News agency: Antara News
State Media Matrix Typology: Independent State Managed (ISM)
Ownership and governance
Through the Government Regulation Number 40, Antara was restructured in 2007 to become a state-owned enterprise. The agency is run by the Ministry of State Owned Enterprises.
Antara is run by a board of directors and a supervisory board, each consisting now of four members. The supervisory board must have at least two members appointed by the Ministry of State Owned Enterprises to represent its interests in the corporation. The supervisory board appoints the board of directors.
Source of funding and budget
The share of the state funding in Antara is now very small, the agency generating most of its budget through commercial activities (mainly sale of content to media outlets domestically and abroad). Antara had a budget of IDR 373bn (US$ 25.3m) in 2019, according to the latest company’s annual report.
Editorial independence
Antara was for decades a government-controlled media outlet. Its only mission was to promote the policy, image and interests of the government. However, in recent decades, the agency began to produce more independent reporting mostly under commercial pressures, particularly as a result of its attempt to generate healthier revenues from sale of content.
Antara has various internal mechanisms aimed at ensuring that the corporation runs smoothly. They include the Good Corporate Governance system, a Code of Conduct and a whistleblowing mechanism that guarantees that staff can lodge complaints without fear of adverse consequences. However, most of these internal mechanisms are primarily designed to ensure good governance and financial transparency and accountability. Neither a statute establishing the editorial independence of Antara nor a mechanism to independently validate its editorial independence do exist.
October 2023