Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)

Established on 24 June 1965, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) is Syria’s official state news agency. As the country’s primary source of government-approved news, it has long shaped public narratives domestically and abroad. SANA publishes in Arabic and, following its post-Assad relaunch, in five additional main languages: English, French, Spanish, Turkish and Kurdish. Following the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, SANA continued as the official state wire service under the transitional authorities. The agency was relaunched on 20 August 2025 under the slogan “SANA, A Turning Point,” with a new visual identity, upgraded production tools, expanded multilingual services and a stated ambition to move away from the Assad-era propaganda model.

Media assets

News agency: SANA

Ownership and governance

SANA is a state-owned news agency affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Information and headquartered in Damascus. Before the fall of the Assad regime, it operated under the tight control of the Ministry of Information, which appointed its leadership and dictated its editorial policy, and it functioned as a core component of the state’s propaganda apparatus.

Since the formation of the Syrian transitional government in March 2025, SANA has remained under the administrative oversight of the Ministry of Information. The ministry changed leadership during the cycle: Hamza al-Mustafa, who held the post when the transitional government was formed, was replaced in May 2026 by Khaled Fawaz Zaarour.

The agency is headed by Director-General Ziad al-Mahamid, appointed in 2025 as part of the transitional government’s effort to reform state-run media and signal a departure from the Assad-era model. In its August 2025 relaunch, the agency was presented under the slogan “SANA, A Turning Point,” with officials describing a shift from a transmitter of officially scripted text toward a professional national news agency with expanded correspondent networks, multilingual services and upgraded production tools.

Source of funding and budget

No budgetary figures for SANA were made public under the previous regime. Based on SMM-retained accounts from exiled Syrian media professionals, the agency was understood to be entirely state-funded, with operational and staff costs covered by central-government allocations.

As of mid-2026, there is still no transparent financial reporting, and SANA continues to operate as a publicly financed institution drawing resources from the transitional government budget. Its relaunch included plans to digitise and develop the agency’s archive, potentially creating future subscription or licensing revenue, but no audited accounts, budget statement or revenue breakdown has been published. A broader media-reform agenda has included calls for future disclosure of public-media financing, but implementation remains pending.

Editorial independence

Under the Assad regime, SANA’s editorial output was overtly loyal to the government, publishing daily material that promoted the state and vilified opposition actors, with coverage of internal dissent or foreign criticism absent or heavily distorted. The agency was a central pillar of the state’s information-control apparatus.

Since the regime’s fall, SANA has undergone a cautious repositioning. Under its new leadership, it has expanded coverage of transitional governance, constitutional reform, reconstruction, refugee returns, foreign relations and domestic recovery, and its relaunch was presented as a move away from the overt propaganda model of the previous era. The new leadership has described the agency’s goal as becoming a professional national and eventually international news agency rather than a regime mouthpiece.

These changes are significant, but they do not yet establish editorial independence. Civil-society and media-freedom actors remain sceptical of the depth of reform, citing the absence of independent oversight, pluralistic governance and legislative safeguards, and the Guardian reported that while the new leadership wanted a professional agency rather than a mouthpiece, whether it could criticise the new authorities remained unclear and Syrian media actors were waiting for actions rather than words. No formal statute or legal mechanism yet protects SANA’s editorial autonomy or shields it from political direction, and the agency remains state-owned and ministry-administered. Syria launched a professional and ethical media code of conduct in 2026, but its implementation, enforcement and independence safeguards remain unclear.

During the cycle, SANA also deepened cross-border cooperation, signing a news-exchange memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s official agency SPA in December 2025. The Saudi Cabinet approved the agreement in April 2026.

AI and digital policy

SMM found no evidence that SANA has published a dedicated public AI governance or editorial-use policy as of mid-2026.

The agency’s cycle priorities have centred on its relaunch and the rebuilding of state news operations after the regime’s fall. The August 2025 relaunch included upgraded production tools, a new visual identity, archive digitisation, a dedicated digital media department, additional languages and an expanded correspondent network inside Syria and abroad. SANA also developed photo, video and social-platform distribution as part of its digital transformation.

These developments reflect investment in news-production capacity, archive digitisation, multilingual digital distribution and social-media adaptation. However, SMM identified no public framework governing the use of AI in the agency’s editorial production, verification, translation, attribution, synthetic-media labelling, content disclosure or human editorial oversight. This is consistent with the early and unsettled state of media-sector regulation under Syria’s transition.

Classification rationale

SANA is classified State-Controlled (SC), a classification maintained from prior SMM cycles. Despite Syria’s broader post-Assad press-freedom improvement and the agency’s relaunch and reform rhetoric, SANA remains the official state news agency, state-owned, administered through the Ministry of Information and funded from the state budget, with its director appointed by the state and no independent regulator or statutory safeguard for its editorial autonomy yet in place.

Its repositioning since the regime’s fall has changed tone, staffing, presentation and thematic range, but not the structural determinants of control. These keep SANA in the SC category for the 2026 cycle.

June 2026