Skip to main content

Entity Type: Domestic Media Company

United News of Bangladesh

Written by Editors on .

United News of Bangladesh (UNB) is Bangladesh’s first fully digitalized private wire service, founded in 1988 as one of the first news agencies in South Asia. The organization claims to maintain correspondent networks across all 64 districts of Bangladesh and says it serves “over 20 million readers” locally and internationally through its principal partnership with Associated Press (AP), the world’s largest wire service. Originally serving print media subscribers, UNB has adapted to digital transformation by launching its interactive website unb.com.bd, which aggregates both domestic news from its extensive Bangladesh network and international content through its AP partnership. The agency describes itself as Bangladesh’s “most dependable and credible source of news and information,” evolving from traditional print distribution to embrace mobile and internet platforms as electronic media revolutionizes news creation and distribution in an increasingly paperless media environment.

Africa Media Holdings

Written by Editors on .

Africa Media Holdings is a Lesotho-based publishing company founded in 2008 by Zimbabwean journalist Basildon Peta, who serves as CEO. The company publishes the Lesotho Times, a weekly launched 2008, and Sunday Express, launched in 2009 — both operating under the masthead “News without fear or favor” and distributed in Lesotho and to Basotho audiences in South Africa. Peta, born circa 1972, is a veteran investigative journalist who fled Zimbabwe in 2002 after detention and persecution by the Robert Mugabe regime for reporting on corruption; he was the second journalist to receive the Media Institute of Southern Africa’s Press Freedom Award. African Media Holdings has faced sustained government pressure in Lesotho, including the 2016 shooting of editor Lloyd Mutungamiri and criminal defamation charges against Peta, which resulted in a landmark 2018 Constitutional Court ruling declaring criminal defamation unconstitutional. The company also operated the Free State Times and has faced financial difficulties, including a 2015 legal judgment requiring Peta to personally pay 125,000 US dollars under guarantee for debts owed to the Media Development Investment Fund, a New York-based NGO that provides financial assistance to independent media organizations. Peta participated in the February 2026 Belt and Road Media Cooperation Forum journalist delegation touring Chinese industrial sites.

Le Quotidien

Written by Editors on .

Le Quotidien is a major independent Senegalese daily newspaper founded in February 2003 by Madiambal Diagne, a lawyer and former journalist from Wal Fadjri. Published by Avenir Communication SA, the newspaper maintains its independence by deriving approximately 60% of revenue from sales rather than advertising, allowing it to maintain what Diagne describes as editorial content that “tells things as they are.” Operating from Dakar, Le Quotidien has established itself as “among Senegal’s leading newspapers, and probably the most circulated independent newspaper” through its critical reporting on political, economic, social, and cultural issues. The publication gained international attention when Diagne was imprisoned for over two weeks in July 2004 for articles alleging government corruption, though charges were later dropped following domestic and international pressure.

Khaosod

Written by Editors on .

Khaosod , is a daily newspaper founded on April 9, 1991, as part of Matichon Publishing Group, which also operates Matichon and Prachachat. The newspaper currently holds the rank of third best-selling newspaper in Thailand. Khaosod gained prominence in 1994 for its extensive coverage of the cover-up murders of a Thai gem dealer’s wife and son, initially reported by many newspapers as a roadside accident but which Khaosod insisted involved senior Royal Thai Police officers ordering the abduction and murder. The newspaper was awarded Best News Feature from Isra Amanantakul Foundation that year for its coverage. The online section experienced a 98% rise in visits in 2010, and Khaosod English was launched in 2013.

Hanoi Radio and Television

Written by Editors on .

Hanoi Radio-Television (Đài Phát thanh – Truyền hình Hà Nội), was established on October 14, 1954, as the official broadcast network of Vietnam’s capital city. According to Vietnamese government sources, regional television stations operate in major Vietnamese cities, including Hanoi, with each of Vietnam’s 61 provinces maintaining its own television channel under state oversight. The station initially operated as a fixed radio station with basic technical facilities. The network operates within Vietnam’s state media system, which is overseen by the Ministry of Information and Communication, and serves to disseminate officially approved information. Currently operating three television channels and multiple radio channels, the network represents one of Vietnam’s regional television stations within the broader state broadcasting infrastructure.

Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT)

Written by Editors on .

Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão or SBT, owned by Brazilian TV host Silvio Santos, began its broadcasts on August 19, 1981, by airing its own license signing ceremony from the Ministry of Communications in Brasília. Operating as Brazil’s third-largest commercial television network according to recent audience data, SBT stepped into the place of the defunct Tupi network, which operated from 1950 until bankruptcy in 1980. Santos gained licenses to former Tupi channels in São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, and Belém, having already owned TVS Rio de Janeiro channel 11 since 1976. The network broadcasts entertainment programming, including Mexican telenovelas from Televisa, children’s shows through a Disney partnership that ended in August 2018, and news programs. While historically second in Brazilian ratings, SBT now ranks third behind Globo and Record TV, operating eight owned stations and over 90 affiliates nationwide.

Matichon

Written by Editors on .

Matichon is a major Thai-language daily newspaper founded by progressive writers in 1978, when Thailand was emerging from authoritarian rule following the October 6, 1976 Massacre. The newspaper positions itself as a quality, upmarket publication with a strong focus on politics, distinguishing itself from sensationalist mass-circulation papers. With a circulation of approximately 120,000 in 1997, Matichon became one of Thailand’s most politically influential newspapers alongside Thai Rath. Since the late 2000s, the publication has faced criticism for alleged pro-Red Shirt bias and controversies regarding editor dismissals and a bribery investigation by the National Press Council of Thailand, for which the paper resigned from the council in protest. The newspaper is owned by Matichon Public Company Limited and operates within the larger Matichon Group, which includes sister publications Khaosod and Prachachat Business. The company maintains both print and online operations, with Matichon Online having a separate editorial board from the print edition.

Sing Sian Yer Pao

Written by Editors on .

The Sing Sian Yer Pao, also known as The Sing Sian Yer Pao Daily News, is a Chinese-language newspaper based in Bangkok, Thailand, founded on June 23, 1950. Originally published in traditional Chinese characters, it switched to simplified Chinese after 2010. In November 2013, the newspaper formed a partnership with China’s Southern Media Group. As of February 2016, the paper was priced at 5 baht in Bangkok and 6 baht elsewhere in Thailand. The newspaper operates from its headquarters on Silom Road in Bangkok’s Samphanthawong district, continuing its long tradition of serving Thailand’s Chinese-language readers.

Sri Lanka Mirror

Written by Editors on .

Sri Lanka Mirror is a Colombo-based bilingual news website founded in November 2010. It describes itself as “a reliable, unbiased and reputed news company” dedicated to reporting news in Sri Lanka “in an unbiased manner,” and says its website is registered with Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Mass Media. The outlet covers local and foreign news, arts, features, sports, and business, and operates under the tagline “Right To Know, Power To Change.” In April 2025, Sri Lanka Mirror launched a dedicated channel for Let’s Meet, an English-language program produced by Chongqing’s Western International Communication Center (西部国际传播中心), or WICC, becoming, according to iChongqing, the first overseas “station” of the WICC’s Let’s Meet Online TV platform. The WICC is an international communication center, or ICC, a type of state-run propaganda center established under local and provincial CCP authorities across China as part of a centrally directed campaign under Xi Jinping since 2021 to boost China’s global messaging. WICC operates under the Chongqing municipal government.