Established in 1976, Cyprus News Agency (CNA) is the largest news agency in Cyprus.
Media assets
News agency: CNA
State Media Matrix Typology: Independent State-Funded (ISF)
Ownership and governance
CNA is governed by a law from 1989 that established the agency as an independent and autonomous institution. The agency is governed by a seven-member Board of Directors that is filled mostly by representatives of journalists (institutions such as the Cyprus Journalists Union, the Cyprus Newspaper and Magazine Publishers Association, and CyBC). There are also members of the Press and Information Office (PIO) at the Ministry of Interior sitting on this board, but they are not in majority.
Source of funding and budget
CNA doesn’t disclose its financial data. According to data published by the media the agency is financed through a combination of state subsidies and revenues from (content) subscriptions sold to news media as well as state authorities. The state contribution to CNA’s annual budget exceeds 50%. In 2022, CNA operated with a budget of €2.9m, of which €2.1m comes from the state budget.
Editorial independence
The government doesn’t impose any editorial rules on CNA. There is no evidence of government control at CNA and an ad hoc content analysis of the agency’s editorial output carried out for this report found diverse and balanced content.
The CNA Law established the agency as a news outlet with full editorial independence.
No independent assessment or oversight mechanism to validate the agency’s independence has been identified.
September 2023