Bakhtar News Agency


Bakhtar News Agency is the official state news agency of the Afghan government, based in Kabul. The agency is a major source of news for all media in Afghanistan, gathering domestic and international news and providing information to outlets. The newspaper is published in the Dari, English, and Pashto languages and has a Pro-government political alignment.
The government had planned to make the agency independent of government control in 2004 before elections.
In 2002, Agence France-Presse established a satellite link providing news information to the Bakhtar News Agency.
Established in 1939 by the Government Press Department, it monitors foreign and domestic news before distribution. The English sector of the news distribution was not added until 1992 in order to keep foreign diplomats informed of Afghan news. The Ministry of Culture and Information monitors the agency.