Dirección General de Medios del Estado

The Dirección General de Medios del Estado (General Directorate for State Media) is a division of Paraguay’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (MITIC). It runs the country’s state media platforms: Paraguay TV, Radio Nacional del Paraguay, and the Agencia de Información Paraguaya (IP). In April 2026, MITIC consolidated these outlets under the unified public identity Medios del Estado. Radio Nacional is the oldest of the group, founded on 2 September 1942, giving it more than eight decades of history. The Agencia de Información Paraguaya launched in January 2009 as the first state news agency, and public television began broadcasting in 2011 under the name TV Pública Paraguay, later Paraguay TV.

Media assets

Television: Paraguay TV, the state public television channel. It broadcasts on digital terrestrial television, including the 15.1 signal, and distributes content online. Paraguay TV was the first Paraguayan channel to adopt the ISDB-T digital television system. Paraguay’s analogue switch-off began on 31 December 2024 in Asunción, Central, and selected districts in nearby departments, but the national transition is being implemented in stages and is expected to cover the whole country by 2029.

Radio: Radio Nacional del Paraguay, the state public radio service, including 920 AM and 95.1 FM, with associated state radio services such as Radio Nacional San Pedro and Radio Carlos Antonio López de Pilar.

News agency: Agencia de Información Paraguaya (IP), the official state news agency.

Ownership and governance

In 2018, Paraguay’s Congress approved Law 6207, creating MITIC and absorbing the functions of the former Secretaría Nacional de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (SENATICs) and Secretaría de Información y Comunicación (SICOM). Paraguay TV, Radio Nacional del Paraguay, and Agencia IP are part of the Dirección General de Medios del Estado, under MITIC’s authority.

MITIC’s official structure places the Dirección General de Medios del Estado under the Viceministerio de Comunicación. As of July 2026, MITIC was led by minister Gustavo Villate; Alejandra Duarte Albospino was Vice-Minister of Communication; and Héctor Riveros Miranda was listed as Director General of Medios del Estado. The minister and vice-ministers are political executive-branch appointees, and the media directorate sits below them in the ministerial hierarchy. This chain of control, running from the President through MITIC to the state media, is the core fact behind the State-Controlled classification.

Under President Santiago Peña, who took office in August 2023, the structure has remained unchanged. Official materials present the Medios del Estado as part of the government’s communication system, and MITIC has described the modernization of Paraguay TV and Radio Nacional as a way to improve government communication and the delivery of official information to citizens.

Source of funding and budget

The Dirección General de Medios del Estado is funded predominantly by the state, through MITIC. Detailed public figures for the individual outlets are sparse: public budget documents are available for MITIC as a ministry, but they do not provide a clean, regularly updated public breakout for Paraguay TV, Radio Nacional, and Agencia IP as separate media operations. Journalists and experts consulted for earlier SMM research indicated that the outlets are funded primarily through the state allocation.

The outlets can also generate limited commercial revenue. Paraguay TV and Radio Nacional have advertising tariffs approved through MITIC, and a government effort to develop commercial revenue for state media dates back to 2012. Even so, there is no evidence of a substantial independent commercial base. The financial structure therefore ties the outlets to the ministry and, through it, to the government.

Editorial independence

Paraguay’s state media are not institutionally independent of the government. MITIC’s legal and regulatory framework defines the ministry’s communication role around the dissemination of information generated by public bodies and communication between the executive and citizens. The regulatory framework also places annual government and institutional communication planning under MITIC coordination and approval.

This institutional mission is reflected in official descriptions of the outlets. A 2019 MITIC statement described the ministry’s mission as giving the state media the tools to bring official information closer to citizens, and more recent Paraguay TV materials describe the channel as showing government activity and progress from the field. Analysis of content published by the state media in 2023 and 2024 for earlier SMM research found that the outlets focused predominantly on positive statements by officials and ministers about government actions, a pattern of favourable coverage common across the state platforms.

SMM found no domestic statute or mechanism that would assess or safeguard the editorial independence of Paraguay’s state media. Their orientation toward the government of the day is the defining feature of their State-Controlled status.

AI and digital policy

Paraguay’s state media are increasingly digital. Paraguay TV was the first national channel to adopt digital terrestrial television, the analogue switch-off process began in 2024 in the first geographic zone, and all three main platforms distribute content online. MITIC has pursued a broader digital-government and artificial-intelligence agenda, including cooperation with Taiwan on AI infrastructure and data-centre capacity. Paraguay also had AI-related bills under consideration, but SMM found no dedicated editorial AI-governance policy specific to the state media, and Paraguay had no comprehensive binding artificial-intelligence law fully in force as of mid-2026.

Classification rationale

The Dirección General de Medios del Estado is classified State-Controlled because its outlets are units of MITIC, their management sits within an executive-branch chain of command, they are funded predominantly from the state budget, and they have no binding guarantee of editorial independence. Their content has consistently favoured government activity, and official materials describe them in terms of delivering official information and strengthening government communication. They are institutional media of the state, not autonomous public-service broadcasters.

July 2026