Founded in 1996, ABI is a news agency with a traffic of 24 million weekly visits online.
Media assets
News agency: ABI
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
ABI, like most state media in Bolivia, relies on the Ministry of the Presidency, which is headed by the country’s president.
After the change in government in 2020, the then-newly elected authorities led by the Socialist Party (MAS) in Bolivia altered the management of all state media, including ABI. This indicated that the government began solidifying its control over the state media.
Source of funding and budget
No source of data regarding the ABI budget has been identified. The agency does not sell ads, and its content is free of charge online.
Editorial independence
An informal content analysis conducted for this project found that most of the agency’s output currently comprises information critical of former President Morales and articles favoring the government in power until the 2020 elections. A subsequent round of content analysis revealed that the outlet’s editorial agenda changed after 2020 to favor the then-newly installed government. The most recent content analysis conducted in March 2024 found a similar pro-government bias.
No domestic statute or independent assessment mechanism to validate the ABIs’ independence has been identified.
July 2024