Agence Congolaise de Presse (ACP)

Agence Congolaise de Presse (ACP) is the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s official national news agency and the state’s primary vehicle for producing and distributing national news in text, photo, and digital formats. As recorded in the State Media Monitor 2025 baseline, ACP was created by decree on 12 August 1960, signed by then Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in the first weeks of Congolese independence, taking over the activities and installations of the Belgian colonial news agency Agence Belga. During the Zaire period, the agency operated under the name Agence Zaïre Presse (AZAP) before reverting to its current name. ACP is a public establishment headquartered in Kinshasa.

Media assets

News agency: ACP

Ownership and governance

ACP was created by decree on 12 August 1960, signed by Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, taking over the activities and installations of the Belgian colonial news agency Agence Belga. The agency’s legal status evolved over the following decades: it acquired the status of a public establishment of a technical, administrative and commercial character with legal personality under Ordonnance No. 67-83 of 3 February 1967, and its status was changed to that of a public enterprise under Ordonnance No. 81-052 of 2 April 1981. The agency operated under the name Agence Zaïre Presse (AZAP) during the Zaire period before reverting to its current name, and today functions under the supervision of the Ministry of Communication and Media.

The current senior management was named by presidential ordinance read on RTNC on 3 September 2022:

• Bienvenu-Marie Bakumanya Bakwala — Director General (DG)
• Jean-Médard Liwoso — Deputy Director General (DGA)
• Tharcisse Kasongo Mwema Yamba Yamba — President of the Board of Administration (PCA), as appointed in the original ordinance

Ali Kalonga, a former ACP Director General and an administrator at the agency, later became President of the Board of Administration; by late 2024 he was publicly acting in that role. Kalonga presided over the first Board of Administration meeting under his chairmanship on 19 November 2024, at which the rejuvenation of an ageing workforce was identified as an institutional priority. The agency has pursued a network expansion under DG Bakumanya: in April 2025, a new provincial directorate was inaugurated in Tshikapa (Kasaï province), with Governor Crispin Mukendi Bukasa installing the office on 28 April 2025, provincial director Nanouche Ngalula installed, and 44 candidate journalists recruited and trained for the provincial team.

The supervisory ministry is the Ministry of Communication and Media, headed by Minister and government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya Katembwe, in office continuously since April 2021 and reappointed on 7 August 2025 in the 53-member “government of national unity” formed under Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka.

Source of funding and budget

While official financial disclosures are lacking, statutory provisions stipulate that ACP’s operations are to be predominantly funded by the state. State Media Monitor baseline interviews indicate that ACP relies overwhelmingly on government subsidies, with no meaningful independently documented commercial revenue and no public budget breakdown or audited accounts available.

In November 2024, during the parliamentary review of the 2025 national budget, ACP Board chair Ali Kalonga met with Jacques Djoli, the National Assembly’s Rapporteur, to discuss securing the agency’s funding, a meeting noted in the 2025 baseline as the principal documented budget development of the period. No subsequent public budget figure for ACP has been identified as of May 2026.

Editorial independence

Despite no formal directive obliging ACP to promote government positions, the agency is widely regarded by local journalists and media experts as a mouthpiece for the state. State Media Monitor content analysis carried out in 2024 and again in 2025 found ACP’s coverage overwhelmingly aligned with the government’s communication agenda, with minimal space for dissenting views or critical reporting, a finding that carries particular weight given that much of the available source base is ACP’s own output, which naturally foregrounds official activity. To date, no legislation or regulatory framework has been identified that would guarantee or assess the editorial independence of ACP, and there are no independent oversight mechanisms or transparency measures in place to ensure the integrity of its journalistic output.

Among the governance developments of the cycle, the agency implemented a gender-equity measure through Decision No. 70/ACP/DG/BMB/MFN 2024, promoting women journalists to senior editorial positions including editors-in-chief, deputy editors-in-chief and chief sub-editors — a step welcomed by the Association congolaise des femmes journalistes de la presse écrite (Acofepe).

The broader media-regulatory environment in the DRC includes the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel et de la Communication (CSAC); ACP, however, is a national press agency rather than an audiovisual broadcaster, and no effective mechanism was identified that safeguards ACP’s editorial autonomy. The DRC ranks 130th of 180 countries and territories in the Reporters Without Borders 2026 World Press Freedom Index, a three-place improvement from the 133rd position recorded in 2025, in a press environment shaped by legal proceedings against journalists and by extreme conditions in the conflict-affected east of the country.

AI and digital policy

ACP operates a digital presence through its acp.cd portal and social-media channels, publishing news copy across nation, politics, economy, business, society and sport, alongside its specialised Desk Business economic-news service and its ACP Debunkage fact-checking service. The fact-checking service represents the agency’s principal documented engagement with digital-information integrity.

No publicly available ACP policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA was identified. The DRC’s media-regulatory framework does not currently include sector-specific provisions governing AI-generated content, deepfakes, or synthetic-media authentication standards.

May 2026