Outlet profile

Anadolu Agency

Turkish state media, pro-Erdoğan government

Owned byTurkish state; formally a joint-stock company with ownership held under the Undersecretariat of Treasury; since a 2019 presidential decree, placed under Turkey's Directorate of Communications, a body directly managed by the Presidency, which holds authority to appoint leadership and oversee operations

FundingPrimarily Turkish state budget subsidies; no statute guarantees editorial independence from the government

On the administrationmixed

Background

Anadolu Agency was founded on April 6, 1920 in Ankara, at the order of Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later Atatürk), during the Turkish War of Independence—making it one of the world's oldest national news agencies. Journalist Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu and writer Halide Edib were among its earliest organizers, and the agency announced the first legislation passed by the Grand National Assembly. A 1925 parliamentary act declared it nominally autonomous, but it has functioned as a quasi-governmental entity throughout its history. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP, political pressure on the agency intensified markedly. A 2019 presidential decree transferred oversight to the Directorate of Communications—a body run directly by the Presidency—granting the state power to appoint management, approve budgets, and audit all operations. That same year, a Reuters investigation documented that Anadolu abruptly stopped releasing Istanbul mayoral election results when the opposition candidate was leading, causing widespread confusion, a move widely interpreted as politically motivated. Media Bias/Fact Check rates the agency Right-biased with mixed factual accuracy, citing poor sourcing and strong pro-government editorial slant; Reporters Without Borders has consistently ranked Turkey near the bottom of global press freedom indexes, with domestic public media allocating over 92 percent of political visibility to the ruling party by 2023. Despite these concerns, Anadolu distributes content in 13 languages to more than 100 countries and has content-sharing partnerships with major Western wire services including Getty Images, Reuters Connect, and AFP.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-18; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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