Bahrain News Agency (BNA) is the principal contributory of major national news in the Kingdom of Bahrain by virtue of its honest and objective reporting. BNA is the official conveyor of Bahrain’s news and events and the main source of the Kingdom’s news locally and abroad.
BNA accomplishments were boosted through the reforms launched by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa who has greatly focused on the significant role of the media in accelerating the nation’s progress.
BNA has taken over from the Gulf News Agency (GNA) that was established by the Arabian Gulf information ministers at their meeting in Riyadh in 1976. GNA's board of directors was chaired by Bahrain's Former Information Minister, the late Tariq Al Moayyed.
During the same meeting, GNA's budget and administrative structure were approved, and Nabil bin Yacoub Al Hamer – currently advisor to HM King for media affairs – was appointed GNA’s general director. He held the position until 1989.
GNA’s official broadcast began on 1 April 1978 under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa the Prime Minister and in the presence of its board of directors and staff.
In 1985, the Gulf News Agency (GNA) was annexed to the Ministry of Information in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and later in 2003 a Royal Decree was issued changing its name to Bahrain News Agency (BNA).
In 1992, Khalid Abdullah Al Zayani the Head of News Centre at Bahrain Radio & TV Corporation (BRTC) was appointed to oversee BNA, Jamal Dawood Salman became its Chief Editor.
In 2005, Abdullah Salman was appointed Director of BNA.
In 2011, Mohannad Sulaiman Al Nuaimi was appointed Acting General Director of BNA.
In May 2018, Ahmed Mohammed Abdulkareem Almannai was appointed as Director General of Bahrain News Agency with the rank of Assistant Undersecretary.
In March 2019, Abdulla Khalil Buhejji was appointed as Director General of Bahrain News Agency with the rank of Assistant Undersecretary.
BNA operates through an integrated working mechanism; it disseminates local and international news in Arabic and English and cooperates with several news agencies to broadcast its reports in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Hindi, Russian, French, German and other languages. It transmits economic, political, cultural and social reports to its subscribers and partners.
BNA includes:
Photography Unit .
Translation Section .
News Exchange Unit .
Electronic Media Unit .
Research and Data Section .
Editors and Correspondents Unit .
Bahrain News Agency has its own training centre to develop media skills, in addition to various news services such as BNA zaman, BNA Kids, BTV channels tickers and social media services.
Bahrain News Agency uses the latest state-of-the-art communication technologies capable of prompting news coverage for events, investigations, reports. Such capabilities allow BNA was able to communicate with more than 800 news agencies and personalities to update them with the latest news and information.
Bahrain News Agency won the Arab Media Outstanding Creativity Award in 2011, awarded by the Arab League’s Organisation for Administrative Development. It also won the Excellence Award from HH the Prime Minister of Kuwait during the Arab Media Forum hosted in Kuwait.
BNA has been elected as deputy chair of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA), a member of the Executive Board of the Islamic News Agency (INA), and a member of the Executive Board of the Organisation of Asian News Agencies (OANA).
Bahrain News Agency has signed cooperation memoranda with more than 24 Arab and international news agencies.
It has a sound reputation as an effective partner in various international conferences and events held by news agencies.