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Antara is an Indonesian news agency, delivering trustworthy local and global news, supplying news reports to the many domestic media organization. It is the only organization authorized to distribute news material created by foreign news agencies.

History

The news agency was founded in 1937, when the country was still a colony in the Dutch Empire, by independence activists dissatisfied with the lack of local coverage by the Dutch-owned Aneta news agency.

Antaras operation was absorbed into the Tsushin news network following invasion by the Japanese in 1942. Its staff played a key role in the broadcast of Indonesias proclamation of independence and assumed control of the facilities in the region at the end of the war.

The agency remained under private management until it was placed under the control of the presidency in the 1960s when the government shifted its focus from decolonization to nation-building. Antara became an institution through which the state could promote its policies.

Following a wave of political reforms in the late 1990s, Antara began to produce its reporting independently of the government and was reorganized as a state-owned enterprise in 2007. However, media scholars argue that a lengthy relationship with the government makes it difficult for the agency to become an unbiased news organization.

Antara celebrated its 75th anniversary on 13 December 2012