Bahrain News Agency (BNA) is the state agency of Bahrain. It was established in 1976 as the Gulf News Agency and renamed the Bahrain News Agency in 2001.
Media assets
Bahrain News Agency
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
The agency is run by the Information Affairs Authority, which holds all the decision-making power over BNA in terms of editorial policy and organizational matters. The authority picks the agency’s management. The general director of BNA is appointed by the King through a royal decree. According to journalists and experts specializing in Bahrain, the director has a high government rank. The agency’s office is listed at the Ministry of Information’s address.
Source of funding and budget
BNA is funded through a state grant allocated to the Ministry of Information, which runs BNA, according to journalists and experts specializing in Bahrain. Neither the ministry nor BNA disclose data about the agency’s financial performance. A journalist with insight information told Media and Journalism Research Center in an interview in April 2024 that the agency receives a yearly state subsidy of about US$ 14m.
Editorial independence
BNA is under strict government control. The agency openly promotes the government, its policies, and its activities. An informal content analysis run for this project found that articles positively covering authorities, particularly the King, account for over 90% of all the stories run by the agency.
No domestic statute or independent assessment/oversight mechanism that would validate the editorial independence of BNA has been identified.
July 2024