Oman State Press Publishing (former Oman Establishment for Press, News, Publication, and Advertising/OEPPA)

Oman’s state press publishing system comprises Oman Daily (Arabic: عمان), Oman Daily Observer and Nizwa Magazine, now operated under the Ministry of Information of the Sultanate of Oman. The Oman Establishment for Press, News, Publication, and Advertising, commonly rendered in English as the Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA), was established by Royal Decree No. 43/97 of 25 June 1997 as a financially and administratively autonomous institution for state press, news, publishing and advertising activity. However, OEPPA no longer exists as an active legal authority: Royal Decree No. 95/2020 of 18 August 2020 transferred its allocations, assets, rights, obligations and employees to the Ministry of Information and abolished the Establishment, in the same restructuring decree that also abolished the Public Authority for Radio and Television, the Media Training Centre and the Directorate General of Communications in the Secretariat General of the Council of Ministers.

Media assets

Arabic-language newspaper: Oman Daily (عمان), the official Arabic-language state newspaper. Its first issue appeared on 18 November 1972 as a weekly publication, and it later developed into a daily newspaper, with daily publication beginning in November 1980

English-language newspaper: Oman Daily Observer, the official English-language state newspaper, first issued on 15 November 1981 and published from the Madinat Al Ilam headquarters in Muscat under Ministry of Information supervision. Abdullah bin Salim Al Shueili continued as Editor-in-Chief during the 2025/26 SMM review period, having held the role since 2013

Cultural magazine: Nizwa Magazine, the Ministry of Information’s quarterly cultural journal

Ownership and governance

Oman Daily, Oman Daily Observer and Nizwa Magazine are now operated within the Ministry of Information’s press publishing structure. OEPPA was created in 1997 as a financially and administratively autonomous institution, but it was abolished by Royal Decree No. 95/2020, which transferred its allocations, assets, rights, obligations and employees to the Ministry of Information.

Dr Abdullah Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Harrasi has served as Minister of Information since the August 2020 restructuring and continued in that role under Royal Decree No. 17/2026 of 12 January 2026, which reconstituted the Council of Ministers. The Ministry’s current public structure also identifies Mohammed bin Said Al-Balushi as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information, appointed by Royal Decree No. 19/2022. Editor-in-Chief Abdullah bin Salim Al Shueili continued at Oman Daily Observer through the 2025/26 SMM review period. This governance arrangement places the publications within a direct ministerial chain of command rather than within an independent press-publishing corporation.

The wider cycle context for state press publishing governance was shaped by Royal Decree No. 17/2026, issued by Sultan Haitham bin Tariq on 12 January 2026 and published in Official Gazette 1630a on 13 January 2026. The decree reconstituted the Council of Ministers, including the appointment of HH Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham bin Tariq Al Said as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and HH Sayyid Balarb bin Haitham bin Tariq Al Said as Minister of State and Governor of Muscat, while retaining Al-Harrasi as Minister of Information. No structural restructuring introducing editorial independence or arm’s-length governance for state press publishing was identified during the 2025/26 SMM review.

Source of funding and budget

Oman Daily, Oman Daily Observer and Nizwa Magazine operate under a hybrid funding model combining commercial advertising revenue with direct government support channelled through the Ministry of Information framework. According to SMM-retained expert sources and local journalists and media analysts consulted in May 2024 and March 2025, more than half of the publications’ operational budgets are provided by the government, with commercial advertising revenue covering the remaining share.

This heavy dependence on public funds underscores the limited commercial autonomy of state press publishing in the Sultanate, particularly in the context of Oman’s broader fiscal reforms under Vision 2040. No standalone 2025/26 allocation for Oman Daily, Oman Daily Observer, Nizwa Magazine or the former OEPPA structure was identified in publicly disclosed Ministry of Information or Ministry of Finance documentation reviewed by SMM during the cycle, and no independent audited disclosure or budget breakdown for the publications’ operations has been made available.

The 2025/26 cycle produced no structural funding reform for Oman’s state press publishing system. Oman Daily, Oman Daily Observer and Nizwa Magazine continued to operate as state-subsidised publications within the Ministry of Information, with no transition toward full commercial sustainability, audited public disclosure or alternative revenue streams identified during the SMM review.

Editorial independence

Oman Daily, Oman Daily Observer and Nizwa Magazine are subject to strict state editorial control, with their location inside the Ministry of Information ensuring that ministerial direction extends across content production, staffing and day-to-day operations. According to SMM-retained expert sources and local and international media analysts consulted during prior cycles, criticism of the Sultan, the royal family, the government and state policies is strictly restricted across the publications, with coverage of political dissent, institutional shortcomings and public-sector inefficiencies subject to censorship pressure and editorial interference.

The RSF Oman 2026 country assessment similarly characterises self-censorship as the rule in Oman, noting that criticism of Sultan Haitham bin Tariq and his predecessor Sultan Qaboos bin Said is unacceptable and that independent media are targeted whenever they engage with sensitive matters such as corruption. RSF also notes that Omani journalism is marked by overwhelmingly positive coverage, with reporters largely relying on information provided by governmental and private institutions.

The 2025/26 cycle did not produce any structural editorial reform for Oman Daily, Oman Daily Observer or Nizwa Magazine. Oman’s new Media Law, issued by Royal Decree No. 58/2024, and its executive regulation, issued by Ministerial Decision No. 165/2025, consolidated Ministry authority over licensing and media activity, but no statutory editorial-independence guarantee for state press publishing was identified during the SMM review. No internal editorial charter, independent regulatory body or external oversight mechanism monitoring the publications’ compliance with journalistic standards was identified during the cycle.

AI and digital policy

Oman Daily, Oman Daily Observer and Nizwa Magazine have not published public-facing institutional AI governance policies. No cycle-window AI-tool deployment or generative-AI editorial integration was identified in the state press publishing system during the SMM 2025/26 review.

Classification rationale

Oman’s state press publishing system remains classified as State-Controlled (SC) for the 2026 cycle. Oman Daily, Oman Daily Observer and Nizwa Magazine operate within the Ministry of Information rather than through an arm’s-length press-publishing corporation, the former Oman Establishment for Press, News, Publication, and Advertising (established by Royal Decree No. 43/97 of 25 June 1997) having been abolished in August 2020 with its allocations, assets, rights, obligations and employees transferred to the Ministry of Information, and there is no independent board overseeing the publications, no statutory editorial-independence guarantee for state press publishing, and no internal editorial charter or external oversight mechanism shielding output from government direction; the continued tenure of Dr Abdullah Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Harrasi as Minister of Information under Royal Decree No. 17/2026 reinforced continuity in the Ministry-led governance architecture established in 2020, with Abdullah bin Salim Al Shueili continuing as Editor-in-Chief of Oman Daily Observer through the cycle. The publications operate under a hybrid funding model in which SMM-retained expert sources report that more than half of operational budgets are provided by direct government support through the Ministry of Information framework, with no standalone 2025/26 allocation for Oman Daily, Oman Daily Observer, Nizwa Magazine or the former OEPPA structure identified in publicly disclosed budget documentation, and no audited public financial disclosure available for state-press-publishing-specific operations. The 2025/26 cycle produced no governance, funding or editorial reform sufficient to move Oman’s state press publishing out of the SC category: Oman Daily, Oman Daily Observer and Nizwa Magazine continued to function as the central state print and digital publications of the Sultanate during a cycle marked by the reconstitution of the Council of Ministers under Royal Decree No. 17/2026, ongoing Vision 2040 governance reforms, the implementation of Oman’s new Media Law framework under Royal Decree No. 58/2024 and Ministerial Decision No. 165/2025, and the absence of structural editorial-independence safeguards reflected in RSF’s weak 2026 legal-indicator score for Oman.

June 2026