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The Post-Courier

The Post-Courier is the nation’s first daily newspaper, established on 30 June 1969 and headquartered in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Majority owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Australia, the publication was formed through the merger of two newspapers: the three-days-a-week South Pacific Post and the twice-weekly New Guinea Times Courier. The newspaper operates as Papua New Guinea’s primary daily publication, claiming an audited circulation of 26,262. It serves a predominantly urban readership with its news coverage and reporting. The Post-Courier has, according to its editorial board, an influential voice within Papua New Guinea’s media landscape, playing a crucial role in informing public discourse and maintaining its position as “the country’s leading newspaper publication.”

Shanghai Cooperation Organization

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (上海合作组织), known as SCO, is a Eurasian political, economic, international security and defense organization established on June 15, 2001, and headquartered in Beijing, China, claiming to promote mutual security, political, and economic cooperation among member states. The organization emerged from the Shanghai Five mechanism formed in 1996 between China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan, with Uzbekistan joining at establishment and subsequent expansion to include India and Pakistan in 2017, Iran in July 2023, and Belarus in July 2024. According to organizational documents, the SCO positions itself as the world’s largest regional organization by geographic scope and population, covering approximately 24 percent of the world’s total area and 42 percent of the world population, with combined nominal GDP accounting for around 23 percent of the global total as of 2024. Members of the organization include: China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.

HT Media Group

HT Media is an Indian mass media company headquartered in Delhi, operating across print, electronic, and digital media platforms, and founded in 2002. Going back to 1924 with Mahatma Gandhi’s editorial vision, according to the company, HT Media has grown into a multimedia conglomerate under the leadership of chairperson Shobhana Bhartia, a member of India’s influential Birla family. Its flagship publication, the Hindustan Times, ranks as India’s second-largest English newspaper, alongside business daily Mint, Hindi newspaper Hindustan, and magazines Kadambini and Nandan. The group operates 19 printing facilities nationwide, while its digital properties include Hindustantimes.com, Livemint.com, and recruitment platform Shine.com, plus radio stations Fever FM and Radio Nasha.

Bakhtar News Agency

Bakhtar News Agency (آژانس خبری باختر) is Afghanistan’s official state news agency, established in 1939 by the Government Press Department and headquartered in Kabul. The agency operates under the supervision of the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture and publishes content in eight languages: Dari, Pashto, English, Arabic, Russian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Chinese, with its English-language service launched in 1992 to serve foreign diplomats and international audiences. Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, Bakhtar has become a key component of the regime’s media infrastructure, with reports indicating the agency now functions as “a state propaganda outlet” under strict editorial oversight. The agency operates with approximately 175 staff including 90 journalists across all 33 provinces, producing around 200 news reports daily while serving as the primary news source for all governmental media outlets. In 2002, Agence France-Presse established a satellite link to provide news information to Bakhtar.

RT

RT, formerly Russia Today, is a Russian state-controlled international news network funded by the Russian government. Launched in 2005, RT operates channels in multiple languages, including English, Arabic, Spanish, French, and German. The network has been widely described as a propaganda outlet for the Russian government, with Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor-in-chief, once comparing it to Russia’s Ministry of Defense and stating it was “waging an information war” against the West. Following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, RT was banned throughout the European Union, while platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Microsoft restricted its content. RT has been repeatedly found by regulators to broadcast “materially misleading” information and has been ordered to register as a foreign agent in the United States.

High Authority for Press and Audiovisual

Mauritania’s High Authority for Press and Audiovisual Material (Haute Autorité de la Presse et de l’Audiovisuel), or HAPA, is a media regulatory body established in October 2006, responsible for licensing media outlets, enforcing press regulations, and nominating heads of public media organizations. The authority’s six-member board includes three members appointed by the republic’s president, two by the National Assembly, and one by the Senate, a structure that leaves board members only partly autonomous from the executive branch. In August 2011, HAPA authorized the country’s first private media outlets, ending the government’s 51-year broadcast monopoly. The authority also defines rules governing the access of political parties to public broadcasting during elections.

Arab States Broadcasting Union

The Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) is a pan-Arab broadcasting organization  established in February 1969 in Khartoum, Sudan, under the League of Arab States system, and now headquartered in Tunis, Tunisia. The union, with member state seats and a rotating chairmanship, defines its mission as strengthening cooperation among Arab broadcasters through news exchange, programming services, sports rights acquisition, and technical training. The organization maintains partnerships with the European Broadcasting Union and UNESCO. 

Supreme Council for the Regulation of the Media

Egypt’s Supreme Council for the Regulation of the Media is a government regulatory body established under Law No. 92 of 2016 and first formed in April 2017. Although Egypt’s Constitution describes it as an independent body, the President directly appoints its head and most members. The council licenses all media outlets, newspapers, and websites operating in Egypt; it has the authority to block websites, suspend publications, and prevent content deemed threatening to “national security.” The SCMR has been criticized for creating “a restrictive media regulatory scheme that grants authorities broad discretion to censor or block content,” severely constraining independent journalism in Egypt.

The People’s Government of Chongqing Municipality

The People’s Government of Chongqing Municipality (重慶市人民政府) is the administrative body of China’s fourth and largest direct-controlled municipality in China. The mayor runs the government but is subordinate to the municipal party secretary, the top leader. It comprises a mayor, vice mayors, a General Office, and numerous bureaus handling public security, judicial affairs, and civil, economic, social, and cultural matters. The government was established in December 1949, restructured as the Chongqing Revolutionary Committee (重慶革命委員會) during the Cultural Revolution in June 1968, and re-established to its current form in March 1980. Chongqing has often been a focus of policy experimentation, including the formation in 2018 of China’s first international communication center, which operates the iChongqing platform for external propaganda.