Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)

The Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) is Cuba’s national state news agency. It began operating on 21 May 1974 as the Agencia de Información Nacional (AIN), and in November 2015 it adopted its current name, ACN, to reflect its expanded national and international role. The agency distributes news primarily in Spanish, and its 2015 relaunch documented translation services in English, French, and Russian, with State Media Monitor’s 2025 mapping additionally listing Portuguese; not all of these appear as equivalent, continuously updated public editions. It distributes across text, photography, audio, video, and teletext, and runs a central newsroom in Havana with correspondent offices in every province and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud.

ACN describes itself as a multimedia news organisation that provides free content on its website and teletext channel while also selling products and services to subscriber clients. Figures published around its 2015 relaunch described a network of more than 120 journalists and other professionals distributing around 20,000 news items annually; these should be read as 2015-era figures rather than a verified current count. Its output spans economic, political, social, cultural, scientific, technological, and sports coverage.

Media assets

News agency: ACN (Agencia Cubana de Noticias), distributing text, photography, audio, video, and teletext; primarily in Spanish, with documented translation services in English, French, and Russian (Portuguese additionally listed in SMM’s 2025 mapping)

Ownership and governance

ACN is owned by the Cuban state and operates within the country’s party-state media system. It is subject to the system-wide legal, regulatory, and coordinating framework administered by the Instituto de Información y Comunicación Social (ICS), the central government body established in 2021 to direct and supervise the country’s social-communication policy, whose powers were formalised in the 2023 Social Communication Law, and it participates in ICS-led initiatives to transform the state press. The public evidence reviewed does not establish that ACN is organisationally incorporated into the ICS in the same direct way as Radio Cubana and Televisión Cubana; rather, it operates as a state news agency within the framework the ICS coordinates. The overarching ideological direction of Cuban media rests with the Communist Party, whose ideological apparatus oversees the media system.

This structure places ACN’s institutional direction inside the state and party framework rather than in any independent company or autonomous public-service body. Norland Rosendo González became the agency’s director general on 3 February 2025, succeeding Edda Diz Garcés, who retired after more than a decade leading the agency; he remained identified as ACN’s director general as of mid-2026. There is no independent governing board, no protected editorial appointment procedure, and no arm’s-length structure separating the agency from the state.

Source of funding and budget

There is no publicly available detailed budget for ACN, and it is understood to be financed principally through public resources, consistent with the position of a state news agency within Cuba’s media system. The 2023 Social Communication Law provides that Cuba’s fundamental media are financed essentially through the state budget or through the budgets of the political, social, and mass organisations to which they belong, and permits supplementary income from commercial services, advertising, and sponsorship. ACN earns such supplementary revenue by selling news products and services to subscriber clients, including international news agencies and television, radio, and print outlets; State Media Monitor’s 2025 research estimated approximately 100 such clients, a figure that should be read as dated rather than a current audited count. This commercial income does not give the agency financial or institutional autonomy from the state.

Editorial independence

ACN’s editorial output reflects the perspectives and policies of the Cuban government and party. While the agency covers a wide range of subjects, including sports, science, and culture, its political reporting consistently presents government officials, institutions, and initiatives in a favourable light, and perspectives challenging Cuba’s political and constitutional order are largely absent. This alignment follows from the agency’s status as a state outlet within a media system whose ownership and direction are defined by the Constitution and the Social Communication Law.

There is no statute establishing ACN’s editorial independence and no independent oversight mechanism to assess its journalistic practices. Its editorial policies operate within the party-state framework rather than as protections against government direction.

AI and digital policy

ACN operates a continuously updated website and distributes across digital and social platforms, and it has reported working to transform its editorial processes amid resource constraints, including a CounTV-based teletext system. That digital innovation is not, however, evidence that ACN itself uses artificial intelligence. Cuba approved a national artificial-intelligence strategy in 2024, but State Media Monitor identified no public ACN-specific editorial policy governing the use of AI.

Classification rationale

ACN is classified State-Controlled because it is a state-owned news agency operating within Cuba’s party-state media system, coordinated by the central communication authority, funded principally from public resources, and directed by state-appointed leadership, with no editorial firewall or independent oversight. Its editorial output aligns with the government and party, and its institutional direction is embedded in the state framework established by the Constitution and the Social Communication Law.

July 2026