The Central News Agency (CNA) is Taiwan’s state-run news agency. The agency was founded in 1924 in Guangzhou, mainland China, but moved to Taipei after the Chinese Civil War that followed World War II.
Media assets
News agency: CNA
News portal: Focus on Taiwan
State Media Matrix Typology: Independent State Managed (ISM)
Ownership and governance
CNA under its current name was established by the Central News Agency Establishment Act of 1999. The agency was established as a non-profit corporation with an initial grant of TWD 10m from the government.
CNA is governed by a board of nine to 15 directors, all appointed by the Prime Minister, and a supervisory board of three to five members, also appointed by the Prime Minister. The board’s primary responsibility is to oversee the agency’s financial management.
Source of funding and budget
CNA used to be largely funded by the government. However, the company has reduced its reliance on government funding in recent years. Data for the planned budget for 2024, a total of TWD 1.12bn (US$ 34.8m), indicates that company revenues will make up the largest portion of the budget, while the government budget allocation is expected to be around 26%.
Just a few years ago, CNA relied on government funding. In 2019, the agency operated with a total budget of TWD 547m (US$ 18.9m), according to the company’s financial reports. The government subsidy accounted for about 57% of the budget.
Editorial independence
Although CNA was established as an agency primarily to ensure that the views of the Taiwanese government are promoted and heard, the latest round of research has not uncovered any incident or evidence that the agency is editorially controlled by the government or that the government interferes in the agency’s editorial affairs.
CNA has neither a national charter nor an independent evaluation mechanism to validate its editorial independence.
September 2024