Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA)

The Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) is Greece’s national news service, created in 2008 through the merger of the Athens News Agency (ANA) and the Macedonian Press Agency (MPA). It has since become a central hub in the country’s news ecosystem, distributing political, economic, cultural, and international content to domestic and foreign outlets.

Media assets

News agency: ANA-MPA

State Media Matrix Typology

State Controlled (SC)

Ownership and governance

ANA-MPA was established by presidential decree as a public entity company. The agency is overseen by a nine-member board of directors that formally includes representatives from the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers (ESIEA), the Macedonia-Thrace Union of Journalists (ESIEMTH), the Athens Union of Daily Newspaper Owners, as well as delegates from universities such as the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which rotate with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Panteion University every three years. The workforce is also represented by one elected member.

Since 2019, ANA-MPA has been placed directly under the Prime Minister’s Office, which holds decisive power over appointments to leadership positions. This shift has reinforced concerns that the agency is subject to strong political oversight.

Source of funding and budget

ANA-MPA’s revenues are derived from a combination of state subsidies and advertising income, although state funding remains the predominant source. The agency’s budgets over recent years were as follows: 2023: €10.4 million; 2019: €9.2 million; 2020: €10.3 million; 2021: €9.1 million; 2022: €10.3 million.

Editorial independence

Officially, there are no government-imposed rules obliging ANA-MPA to prioritize state narratives. A content analysis conducted for this project by Media and Journalism Research Center in May 2022 showed coverage to be relatively diverse and balanced. Nevertheless, independent observers and watchdog organisations have repeatedly pointed out that the agency’s leadership appointments are politically driven.

A 2024 report by the International Press Institute (IPI) stressed that ANA-MPA’s centralized role in disseminating information makes it a powerful instrument of influence for any government in power. The report concluded that successive administrations have treated the agency as a tool of control through politicised appointments, leading to its reclassification in 2024 as State-Controlled Media (SC) in our project.

August 2025