The Central African Press Agency (Agence Centrafricaine de Presse, ACAP) is the government press agency in CAR. It was created in 1960 and began to produce content in the 1970s. The agency was reorganized and attached in 2012 to the Ministry of Communication and Media. ACAP has a very small staff of 10 and limited resources.
Media assets
News agency: ACAP
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
As part of the Ministry of Communication and Media, ACAP’s staff are discretionarily hired by the ministry’s officials. The agency is affiliated and subordinated to the office of the minister.
Source of funding and budget
There is no publicly available information about the budget of ACAP. The agency has since 2012 operated as a directorate under the Ministry of Communication and Media, which means it is directly funded by the ministry.
Editorial independence
ACAP is only by name a news agency because, in reality, it operates as a website that serves as a depository for news content about the authorities. The agency devotes most of its space to news that promote the government’s activities.
No domestic statute and no independent assessment mechanism to validate ACAP’s editorial independence have been identified.
September 2023