Bakhtar News Agency

Bakhtar News Agency (BNA) is Afghanistan’s official state news agency, based in Kabul. It was established in 1939 by the Government Press Department and gathers and distributes domestic and international news, supplying material to government newspapers, national television and other Afghan media. BNA is a member of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and of the Federation of News Agencies of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (UNA), which describes it as an official government agency, a major source of news for Afghan media and an outlet following a pro-government policy. BNA operates multilingual services, although publicly available institutional descriptions are not consistent about the exact number of languages.

Media asset

News agency: Bakhtar News Agency

Ownership and governance

BNA operates as a directorate within the Ministry of Information and Culture. No current autonomous governing board, protected leadership-appointment procedure or external oversight mechanism was identified. A draft BNA regulation was completed under the previous government in 2020 and sent for legislative processing, but no evidence was found that it entered into force or provides the agency with institutional autonomy under the Taliban administration.

On 28 June 2026, BNA announced that Mawlavi Ehsanullah “Hassan” had assumed duties as its new Director, following an appointment by decree of the Taliban prime minister. He previously served as chief of staff at the Office of the Ministry of Information and Culture, and was introduced to staff by Mawlavi Qudratullah Jamal, Deputy Minister for Tourism, Finance and Administration. The agency’s leadership is therefore appointed through the executive hierarchy rather than by institutional nomination, competitive selection or any consultative process.

The ministerial leadership also changed during the review period. Sheikh Shir Ahmad Haqqani was formally introduced as Minister of Information and Culture on 3 September 2025, replacing Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa.

Source of funding and budget

BNA is financed from the state budget as a government agency. No itemised budget for the agency, and no audited accounts, were identified for any year since the Taliban takeover.

The Taliban administration has announced national budgets since 2022, and the World Bank reported that total government expenditure reached approximately AFN 155.7 billion in the first seven months of the 1404 fiscal year (2025), with about 49% directed to security. What is absent is transparency at the level of individual institutions: the US State Department’s 2025 Fiscal Transparency Report found that Afghan ministries and public-sector institutions did not meet minimum transparency requirements, that no entity published an executive budget proposal or end-of-year report within a reasonable period, and that published expenditure and revenue data did not correspond to actual figures.

Editorial independence

BNA has no institutional editorial independence from the Taliban administration. It is administered by the ministry responsible for information policy, its director is appointed through the executive hierarchy, and its output serves as an official source of government news.

CPJ reported in August 2025 that the Taliban run about 15 major television and radio stations, newspapers and digital platforms tightly aligned with their ideology, and that independent media have largely been banned, suspended or shuttered. CPJ also reported that BNA maintains a substantial national collection and distribution network, with staff in Kabul and reporters across Afghanistan’s provinces. As a wholesale news supplier to other outlets, BNA distributes approved material into a sector in which independent domestic alternatives have sharply contracted.

The governing rules are those applying across Afghan media: the eleven journalism rules issued after August 2021, which prohibit material considered contrary to Islam, insulting to national figures or in violation of privacy without defining those categories; and the Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of August 2024, which restricts images of living beings and women’s voices. Human Rights Watch reported in October 2025 that authorities review reports before publication and that journalists confine themselves to approved subjects and official events.

AI and digital policy

BNA distributes content through its website, X, YouTube and WhatsApp. No editorial policy governing generative artificial intelligence, synthetic media, automated production or disclosure of AI-assisted content was identified for the agency, and no national framework regulating AI use by Afghan state media was identified.

Classification rationale

BNA remains classified State-Controlled (SC). It operates as a directorate within the Ministry of Information and Culture and has no autonomous governing board, protected leadership-appointment process or independent oversight mechanism. Its director was appointed in June 2026 by decree of the Taliban prime minister and was drawn from the senior staff of the supervising ministry.

Content is produced within the directive framework applying to all Afghan media and enforced through pre-publication review, intelligence monitoring and Virtue and Vice inspection. No statute, regulator or oversight body protects the agency’s editorial decision-making, and the press law that formerly applied has been repealed or left in an uncertain state without replacement.

BNA’s function as a wholesale supplier of news to other outlets extends the administration’s editorial reach beyond the agency’s own publications. No development during 2025 or 2026 indicates movement toward institutional or editorial independence, and there is no evidentiary basis for any classification other than State-Controlled.

July 2026