Outlet profile

ANTARA

Indonesian state-owned wire service

Owned byIndonesian government; structured as a state-owned enterprise (SOE) under the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) since 2007

FundingMix of government budget allocation and commercial revenues, primarily from selling news content to domestic and foreign media organizations; 2019 annual budget was approximately IDR 373 billion (~US$25 million)

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

ANTARA was founded on December 13, 1937, by Indonesian independence activist Adam Malik as a private wire service during the Dutch colonial period, making it one of the oldest news agencies in Southeast Asia. After Indonesian independence, the agency was placed directly under presidential control in 1962 and renamed Lembaga Kantor Berita Nasional (National News Agency Institute). In 2007, it was reconstituted as a state-owned enterprise under Government Regulation No. 40/2007, with oversight transferred to the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises. Today its Supervisory Board includes members appointed by the government who hold authority over director appointments, tightly binding the agency to state governance. In 2024, the State Media Monitor reclassified ANTARA from its 'Independent State-Managed Media' category to 'Captured Public/State-Owned/Managed Media,' reflecting a finding of diminished editorial independence. As of March 2025, the Indonesian government was weighing a proposal to merge ANTARA with the state broadcaster TVRI and state radio RRI into a unified public media company. ANTARA functions primarily as a wholesale wire service, supplying content to most Indonesian domestic outlets and international subscribers, and its reporting tends to align with official Indonesian government positions on domestic and foreign policy.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-08-13; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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