Khabar Agency

Khabar Agency is one of Kazakhstan’s leading state media holdings. It originated on 20 May 1994 as the Khabar National Television Information Agency, formed within the Republican Corporation Television and Radio of Kazakhstan on the basis of Kazakh Television’s news service, and was established as the Republican State Enterprise Khabar Agency by government decree on 23 October 1995. Its name means news in Kazakh.

Media assets

Television: Khabar and 24KZ

Digital: khabar.kz and 24.kz

Khabar Agency previously operated Kazakh TV, the international satellite channel now known as Jibek Joly, but the channel was transferred to Kazakhstan’s Presidential Television and Radio Complex on 1 April 2022. El-Arna also previously belonged to the agency but ceased broadcasting in May 2025 as part of a state-media optimisation programme, with its content transferred to Khabar. Khabar Agency currently comprises the Khabar and 24KZ television channels.

Its two current television channels broadcast in Kazakh and Russian.

Ownership and governance

Khabar Agency is a joint-stock company with 100 per cent state participation. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Culture and Information exercises the state’s shareholder rights and acts as the agency’s sole shareholder.

The governing body is a Board of Directors of seven members, three of whom are designated independent directors. The executive body is the Management Board. The charter gives the sole shareholder the power to elect the Board of Directors and to determine the composition and term of the Management Board and elect or dismiss its members. That structure mirrors the arrangement at the Qazaqstan Radio and Television Corporation, which also has a seven-member board including three independent directors and the same ministry as sole shareholder.

Leadership changed at the end of the review period. On 31 August 2026 the Ministry of Culture and Information announced the appointment of Lyazzat Tanysbay as Chairman of the Management Board, and confirmed that Kemelbek Oishybayev had been released from the post. Oishybayev had held it since September 2023, when he succeeded Berik Uali on the latter’s appointment as presidential press secretary.

Tanysbay has more than 30 years in television. She has led Astana TV, the Nur-Media holding established at the initiative of the Nur Otan party, the Qazaqstan Radio and Television Corporation and First Channel Eurasia, and served as Vice-Minister of Communications and Information. She chaired RTRK’s Management Board from April 2019 until August 2025, moving from there to First Channel Eurasia and now to Khabar. Her career shows repeated movement between Kazakhstan’s major state and party-linked broadcasting organisations and the government bodies responsible for the media sector.

In announcing her appointment, the ministry said her priorities would include preserving the agency’s existing capacity, gradually modernising its principal areas of activity and strengthening 24KZ’s position as the country’s leading socio-political channel.

Source of funding and budget

As a state-owned broadcaster, Khabar Agency is financed predominantly through Kazakhstan’s republican budget and the state information order.

The 2026 republican budget allocates approximately KZT 21.27 billion to Khabar Agency for conducting state information policy through the Khabar and 24KZ channels under the state information order programme.

The agency’s audited 2025 financial statements provide a clear indication of the importance of this funding. Khabar reported KZT 21.34 billion in revenue from sales and services, of which KZT 18.99 billion came from production and distribution under the state order. State-order revenue therefore accounted for approximately 89 per cent of its sales-and-services revenue. The remainder included commercial production and distribution, advertising, sponsorship, rights sales and other activities.

State Media Monitor did not identify a publicly available document setting out the detailed output requirements or broadcast volumes attached to Khabar’s current state information order.

Editorial independence

Khabar Agency is formally funded to carry out Kazakhstan’s state information policy. The republican budget describes the funded activity in those terms.

Kazakhstan’s Mass Media Act guarantees freedom of speech and prohibits censorship, but State Media Monitor did not identify a Khabar-specific statutory or governance mechanism that structurally insulates editorial decision-making from the state shareholder. The Ministry of Culture and Information is sole shareholder, elects the Board of Directors, determines the composition of the Management Board and publicly stated the incoming chairman’s priorities on appointment. The presence of three independent directors on a seven-member board does not alter that position, since the board itself is elected by the ministry.

State Media Monitor could not identify a published journalistic or editorial standard for Khabar Agency. The agency publishes a Corporate Ethics Code, but this governs corporate and business conduct rather than journalistic practice. By comparison, the Qazaqstan Radio and Television Corporation adopted and published a detailed editorial standard in August 2025.

Khabar’s management stated publicly in June 2026 that information broadcast by its journalists is verified against at least three sources. State Media Monitor records this as a stated editorial practice rather than an independently enforceable standard.

AI and digital policy

State Media Monitor could not identify a published Khabar Agency policy governing the use of generative artificial intelligence, model provenance, mandatory disclosure or AI-specific human verification.

The agency does, however, publicly document substantial adoption of AI tools. In June 2026, Khabar said its staff were using artificial intelligence for video transcription, text voiceover, content generation, graphics and editing, as well as for the automation of internal processes. The agency has a Head of Digital Projects and AI Technologies. In October 2025 it presented a series of short animated videos produced using generative artificial intelligence.

Kazakhstan has adopted binding national rules. The Artificial Intelligence Act of 17 November 2025 requires users to be informed when goods, works or services are produced using artificial intelligence, and provides that synthetic output may be distributed only where it carries machine-readable marking and a perceptible warning. A parallel amendment to the Mass Media Act provides that media products created using an AI system may be distributed only where the required disclosure is given. Both sets of provisions entered into force on 18 January 2026.

Classification rationale

Khabar Agency remains classified State-Controlled Media (SC).

It is wholly state-owned and state-governed. Khabar Agency is a joint-stock company with 100 per cent state participation, and the Ministry of Culture and Information exercises the state’s shareholder rights. The sole shareholder elects the seven-member Board of Directors and determines the composition of the Management Board. Three independent directors sit on the board, but the board is elected by the ministry and no appointment channel exists for parliament, audiences, employees or professional bodies.

It is predominantly state-funded. Khabar’s audited 2025 financial statements show KZT 18.99 billion in revenue from production and distribution under the state order, equivalent to approximately 89 per cent of its KZT 21.34 billion in sales-and-services revenue. The 2026 republican budget allocates approximately KZT 21.27 billion to Khabar Agency for conducting state information policy through Khabar and 24KZ.

Its institutional remit is closely integrated with state information policy. The republican budget explicitly funds Khabar to conduct state information policy; the state shareholder controls the agency’s governing and executive appointments; and no Khabar-specific structural safeguard separating the state shareholder from editorial decision-making was identified.

September 2026