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Archives: Dispatches

All Lingua Sinica Dispatches

Namibia Press Agency

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The Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) is the state-owned national news agency of Namibia, initially founded in 1987 and officially established in 1991 following Namibia’s independence. The agency was created under the Namibia Press Agency Act of 1992, which formalized its status as the country’s official news agency. NAMPA covers government affairs, sports, education, and the economy, and has partnered with several international news agencies, including Agence France-Presse, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, China’s official Xinhua News Agency (新华社), and Russia’s state-run Sputnik. The agency has also faced questions about editorial independence; in October 2002, the Committee to Protect Journalists asserted that NAMPA had “long practiced self-censorship on contentious issues” and accused the agency of being a government mouthpiece, criticism that has persisted in subsequent years.

Guangxi Normal University Press Group

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The Guangxi Normal University Press Group (廣西師範大學出版社集團有限公司) was established in November 1989 in Guilin, Guangxi, and operates as a state-owned publisher wholly owned by Guangxi Normal University, with Huang Xuanzhuang (黃軒莊) serving as both Party Committee Secretary and Board Chairman, a dual appointment that embodies Communist Party control over the publisher’s operations and editorial decisions. The company operates across multiple publishing sectors, including books, periodicals, electronic publications, and educational materials, with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. The group has received awards from the Central Propaganda Department. In its English description, the group states that it  “adheres to the correct political direction” and “effectively puts social benefits in the first place,” language indicating alignment with Party ideological requirements.

Interacom Asia Group Limited

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Interacom Asia Group Limited (交流亚洲集团有限公司), registered in Hong Kong in November 2014, is a private company with company number 2164889. According to a Hong Kong Companies Registry annual return filed in November 2023, Ma Chao (马超) is listed as the company’s sole director and 100 percent shareholder, with a correspondence address in Beijing’s Shunyi District. In 2013, Interacom invested approximately 103 million dollars alongside China Development Bank and CCTV in the South African media group Independent Media. During a public testimony before South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation inquiry in 2019, Independent Media chairman Iqbal Survé confirmed the investment structure, saying that “interest payments to the Chinese had to be made because that was the structure of the transaction.” According to State Media Monitor, ownership is now channeled through “Interacom Investment Holding Ltd, jointly controlled by CITVC and CADFund,” with CITVC being wholly owned by China’s state-run broadcaster CCTV.

Sagarmatha Technologies Limited

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Founded on October 2, 2013, Sagarmatha Technologies Limited is an investment company focused on platform technologies. It claims to deliver comprehensive technology solutions for businesses, encompassing content management systems, data infrastructure, website builders, mobile and web applications, marketing automation, merchandising software, e-commerce platforms, video tools, and related support services. The company was originally incorporated in South Africa as Virturtorque Proprietary Limited, and underwent several name changes before becoming Sagarmatha Technologies Limited in September 2017. The company is a subsidiary of the Sekunjalo Group, which holds 55 percent of South Africa’s Independent Media alongside Chinese state investment.

Forum des As

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Forum des As is a privately owned French-language daily newspaper based in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, that began publishing in 1991. The newspaper covers politics, culture, society, and sports, operating within a challenging media environment where Reporters Without Borders notes that only about 15 of the country’s 500 newspapers publish regularly, and journalists face “arrests, attacks, threats, forced disappearances, executions.”

Guangxi Haisi Cultural Exchange Foundation of China

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The Guangxi Haisi Cultural Exchange Foundation of China (廣西海絲文化交流基金會) was established in March 2018, with Li Yuanqing (李苑青) serving as its legal representative. The foundation aims to promote foreign cultural and economic exchange and cooperation, supporting public welfare projects in the arts, green development, rural revitalization, education and training, and publishing. The foundation is owned by Guilin Beibei Te Electronic Audio-Video Publishing House, a major state-owned publishing house founded in Guilin in November 1986. In 2025, the foundation participated in the China-ASEAN Youth Media Exchange Program, working with media partners from Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

Tunis Afrique Presse

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Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) is the national press agency of Tunisia, founded on January 1, 1961, as a public service provider and the country’s first official news outlet. The agency produces content in Arabic, French, and English, covering national and international news across political, economic, social, cultural, and sports domains. Operating with a network of journalists, reporters, photographers, and correspondents across Tunisia, TAP also maintains cooperation agreements with Arab and international press agencies.

Sekunjalo Group

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Sekunjalo Investment Holdings is a South African private equity firm founded in 1997 by businessman Iqbal Survé and three partners. The company was established with principles of “social justice, broad-based economic participation, and inclusion,” emphasizing what it describes as “a gentler capitalism” focused on people before profits. Sekunjalo operates across multiple sectors, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, fisheries, and media. In August 2013, the company acquired a 55% stake in Independent News & Media South Africa for approximately 150 million dollars, with funding largely provided by the government-owned Public Investment Corporation.

China-Indonesia Media Forum

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On September 1, 2024, media representatives from Indonesia gathered with their Chinese counterparts at the second annual China-Indonesia Media Forum (中國-印度尼西亞媒體論壇) in Beijing to discuss further cooperation. The event was part of China’s deepening media diplomacy push across Southeast Asia in the hope of shaping perceptions in this strategically key region. The event, organized by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasized “the media’s positive role in building a community with a shared future,” referencing a central foreign policy concept closely associated with CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平). Indonesian participants included Antara National News Agency, the news site Kumparan, the national daily Republika, the English-language Jakarta Post, the Indonesian free-to-air television network RCTI, and the media portal Merdeka. Mirroring China’s diplomatic positioning of media cooperation, Indonesia’s ambassador to China called on both sides to “step up cooperation in news production” and invited journalists to “report on positive aspects of each respective country.”