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Asian News International (ANI) is an Indian
news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...
that offers syndicated multimedia news feeds to news bureaus in India. The company was established by Prem Prakash in 1971 and, under the name TVNF, it soon became the first agency in India to
syndicate A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest. Etymology The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndic ...
video news. Drawing upon connections within the Indian government, ANI expanded greatly during the early 2000s. After a period of downturn, the company regained its
monopolistic A monopoly (from Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce a particular thing, a lack of viable sub ...
position; it is India's largest television news agency, and the largest newswire service. Long-form investigations by ''
The Caravan ''The Caravan'' is an Indian English-language, long-form narrative journalism magazine covering politics and culture. It was initially launched in 1940 by Vishwa Nath, becoming a prominent monthly magazine before ceasing publication in 1988. T ...
'' and '' The Ken'' have described ANI as being closely associated with the
government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...
for decades, including under Congress Party rule, but especially after the 2014 election of the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...
(BJP). In 2019, ''The Caravan'' reported that ANI "has a disturbing history of producing blatant
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
for the state". An EU DisinfoLab investigation in an extensive report found ANI to be amplifying a vast network of fake news websites spreading pro-government, anti-Pakistan, and
anti-China Anti-Chinese sentiment (also referred to as Sinophobia) is the fear or dislike of Chinese people or Chinese culture. It is frequently directed at Chinese minorities which live outside Greater China and it involves immigration, nationalism, p ...
propaganda, and in a later investigation to quote associated sources that do not exist.


History


Establishment and early years (1971–2000)

Prem Prakash started his career in the field of photography, working for Visnews (and
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...
) as a
photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (suc ...
, where he went on to cover some of the most significant historical events in post-independence India. A significant figure in the domain of news and documentary film-making by the 1970s, he commanded considerable respect among foreign journalists and film-makers, and received the MBE. In 1971, Prem established ANI (initially TVNF, India's first television news feature agency), which gained influence within the
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
Government. TVNF played a key role in fulfilling
Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...
's wishes of showcasing a positive image of India. It produced numerous films for
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
and went on to gain a monopoly in the sector. Smita Prakash, an alumna of the
Indian Institute of Mass Communication Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is a deemed-to-be-university, established on 17 August 1965, Delhi. Considered as the best media education institute of the country, it has five regional centers across India. The IIMC is an autonom ...
, joined ANI in 1986 as an intern and later became a full-time employee. The daughter of Inna Ramamohan Rao, former director of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting married Prem's son Sanjiv in 1988, which furthered ANI's access within the government. In 1993,
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...
purchased a stake in ANI, and it was allowed to exert a complete monopoly over their India feed.


Expansion (2000–present)

By 2000, India saw a boom of private
24/7 In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day. An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty- ...
news channels; however, unsustainable revenue models meant that they lacked the capacity to hire video-reporters across the country. This allowed a massive expansion of ANI's domestic video-production capacities at the behest of Sanjiv, who rose through the ranks. Smita also rose through the ranks with him. Asian Films TV was incorporated in 2000 to provide feed for newspapers and periodicals. ''
The Caravan ''The Caravan'' is an Indian English-language, long-form narrative journalism magazine covering politics and culture. It was initially launched in 1940 by Vishwa Nath, becoming a prominent monthly magazine before ceasing publication in 1988. T ...
'' though notes that most of its foot-soldiers were low-cost recruits, who had little to do with journalism. In 2000, the NDA government launched DD Kashir, a
Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
-based regional channel, and ANI was allowed to produce its programs. By the end of 2005, ANI's business-model was faring impressively on a consistent basis and it shifted its office out of Gole Market, to a new five-storey building in R. K. Puram. ANI continued to be trusted by the upcoming UPA governments, to the extent that the Ministry of External Affairs chose Smita to be a part of the two-member contingent of Indian journalists at both of the joint press conferences between the incumbent prime ministers of India and the United States. In the later 2000s, the increasing charges for ANI feed and low quality of its journalism, coupled with the introduction of broadcast vans, led to several national and regional channels unsubscribing ANI. The launch of UNI TV in 2010 by Yashwant Deshmukh gave stiff competition as well. However, Ishaan Prakash, Smita's son who joined the company in 2011, procured multiple units of LiveU, expanded ANI's overseas bureaus and signed contracts with multiple state governments and union ministries. A monopoly was again re-created and most of its competitors eventually shut down. By late 2011, ANI accounted for about 99% of the Reuters feed from India, and in FY 2017–18, it was paid
crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...
for the services. Archive videos were sold at rates as high as per second; in FY 2017–18, the firm reported revenues of and a net profit of . Under new management, ANI has been accused of practising an aggressive model of journalism focused on maximum revenue output where journalists were considered dispensable. Multiple employees have accused ANI of not having any
human resource management Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the effective and efficient management of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize e ...
system and ill-treatment of ex-employees.


Litigation


Copyright infringement

In July 2024, ANI sued
Press Trust of India The Press Trust of India Ltd., commonly known as PTI, is the largest news agency in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 450 Indian newspapers. It has over 500 full-time employees , including abo ...
over copyright infringement alleging that it had plagiarised ANI's video clips of
Spicejet SpiceJet is an Indian low-cost airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. , it is the fourth largest airline in India by number of domestic passengers carried, with a market share of 4% and connects 73 destinations, including 60 Indi ...
aircraft's AC breakdown, and sought in damages. In September 2024, ANI sued
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
over the web series '' IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack'' for copyright infringement, alleging that the latter had used video clips in its Kandahar Hijack series without ANI's permission.


YouTube

In May 2025, ''The Reporters Collective'' published an investigation into ANI's copyright claims against
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
creators who use its content without permission. ANI reportedly demands around lakh to and sometimes up to from YouTubers for retrospective licenses to its content, with ''The Reporters Collective'' stating that ANI enforces its copyright on YouTube much more heavily than other Indian media organisations, with some clips deemed infringing by ANI being under 10 seconds in length. Critics have argued that ANI's leverage over YouTubers is enhanced by YouTube's policy of automatically terminating channels after 3 copyright strikes in a 90-day period, often giving creators little choice but to pay what ANI demands if it files copyright claims over their content. ANI has argued that it is legally entitled to enforce its copyright and it is "not extortion" to do so. Later that month, ANI sued YouTuber Mohak Mangal for defamation, after he accused ANI of "extortion and blackmail" after they demanded to remove copyright strikes due to his use of short clips of their content.


OpenAI

In November 2024, Asian News International sued
OpenAI OpenAI, Inc. is an American artificial intelligence (AI) organization founded in December 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. It aims to develop "safe and beneficial" artificial general intelligence (AGI), which it defines ...
for allegedly reusing the former's content for model training, as well as allegedly creating false stories attributed to the agency. ANI also sought in damages. The lawsuit alleged that while some of ANI's content was publicly accessible, certain news items and reports were only available to subscribers, and OpenAI had no right to use this material without a license. ANI also claimed that ChatGPT had produced responses attributing false interviews to the agency, including an interview with
Rahul Gandhi Rahul Rajiv Gandhi (; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician. A member of the Indian National Congress (INC), he is currently serving as the 12th leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and as the member of the Lok Sabha for Rae Bareli Lok ...
that never took place. OpenAI defended its practices, stating that its actions were legal and transparent, and argued that it had not accessed any subscription-only content. The company also raised questions about territorial jurisdiction, noting that it had no physical presence in India. In October 2024, before the lawsuit was filed, OpenAI had blocked ANI through its opt-out policy, which allows websites to opt out of automated use of their text by web scrapers. However, ANI argued this was ineffective as their content was still accessible through third-party content syndication. The case raised questions about India's approach to AI and copyright law, as the country's fair use provisions did not directly reference AI training models. OpenAI defended against claims of verbatim reproduction by arguing that copyright protects expression rather than ideas or facts, and that its models sufficiently modified the original expression to claim copyright exceptions. The
Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi ( Hindustani: दिल्ली उच्च न्यायालय; ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') is the high court in Delhi, India. It was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966. ...
heard the case first on 19 November 2024, and then again on 28 January 2025.


Wikimedia Foundation

In July 2024, ANI filed a lawsuit against the
Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...
in the
Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi ( Hindustani: दिल्ली उच्च न्यायालय; ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') is the high court in Delhi, India. It was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966. ...
—claiming to have been defamed in the Wikipedia article about the agency—and sought in damages. At the time of the suit's filing, the Wikipedia article about ANI said the news agency had "been accused of having served as a propaganda tool for the incumbent
central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...
, distributing materials from a vast network of
fake news Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information (misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes) claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy of news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person ...
websites, and misreporting events on multiple occasions". The filing accused Wikipedia of publishing "false and defamatory content with the malicious intent of tarnishing the news agency's reputation, and aimed to discredit its goodwill". Between 5 September to 8 April, a series of hearings were held. An arrangement was reached in the High Court on 11November to have the foundation serving the summons papers to the involved users as an intermediary while disclosing the email identities of the users under sealed cover to the judge, which would still protect the privacy of the individuals for the time being. After the non-appearance of the individual editors and after deliberations by the judge, the court ordered the Wikimedia Foundation to remove the allegedly defamatory content, remove the article's protected status, and "restrain the platform's users and administrators from publishing anything defamatory against the news agency". However, this order was set aside after WMF appealed to the
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
, and as of 9 May a fresh application for the interim relief was being heard by another judge, Justice Jyoti Singh in the High Court. Separately, on 21October 2024, the Wikimedia Foundation suspended access to the article about the ongoing court case, ''Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation'', due to an order from the high court, which is likely the first time an English Wikipedia page had been taken down after a court order. This order was subsequently questioned by a two-judge bench, consisting of A. S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan of the Supreme Court on 17 March 2025, stating that judges and courts should be more tolerant of criticism; requiring the removal of content because of criticism may not be correct. The judges also stated that the order was about press freedom broadly. On 9 May, the order was overturned and the article reinstated.


Controversies


Relationship with the Indian government and allegations of bias

A long-form report in ''
The Caravan ''The Caravan'' is an Indian English-language, long-form narrative journalism magazine covering politics and culture. It was initially launched in 1940 by Vishwa Nath, becoming a prominent monthly magazine before ceasing publication in 1988. T ...
'', in 2019, described ANI as having "a disturbing history of producing blatant
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
for the state". According to ''The Caravan'', for decades under Congress rule, ANI effectively served as the external publicity division of the Ministry of External Affairs, showing the army in a positive light and suppressing news about any internal discontent; the private nature of the organisation and the repute of its founder gave an air of non-partisan legitimacy to their videos. During the peak spans of militancy in the
Kashmir conflict The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1 ...
, ANI was the near-sole purveyor of video-footage, especially with Rao having been recruited as the media advisor to the state. ANI grew even closer to the government after the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...
(BJP) was elected to power in 2014; effects have ranged from sympathetic covering of the political campaigns by the BJP to reporters being highly confrontational when dealing with politicians from opposition parties. ANI journalists are generally the only members of non-
state media State media are typically understood as media outlets that are owned, operated, or significantly influenced by the government. They are distinguished from public service media, which are designed to serve the public interest, operate independent ...
organisations to accompany Modi on foreign trips. According to an investigation by ''
Newslaundry ''Newslaundry'' is an Indian media watchdog that provides media critique, reportage and satirical commentary. It was founded in 2012 by Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Prashant Sareen, all of whom earlier worked in print or television jo ...
'', ANI was involved in contract negotiations with the chief ministers of several states for a " PR package" to provide coverage by ANI in exchange for payment. A 2019
Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...
conference paper that analysed the
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
activity of BJP members of parliament identified that "the highest levels of engagement are with those ccountsknown to be pro-ruling party—ie the party media mouthpiece (BJP Live), the two national news outlets—
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
and
All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...
, and the ruling party-aligned Asian News International (ANI)". According to ''Newslaundry'', ANI consistently reveals the religion of Muslims accused of crimes, while generally omitting this information if the accused is Hindu. After the enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, an ''
Alt News Alt News is an Indian non-profit fact checking website founded and run by former software engineer Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair. It was launched on 9 February 2017 to combat fake news. Alt News was a signatory partner of the Internation ...
'' report showed that among protests outside India in response to the legislation, ANI's coverage only included protests in support of the legislation while excluding protests that opposed it.


Srivastava Group

In 2020, an investigation by EU DisinfoLab, a non-profit disinformation watchdog, concluded that ANI was publishing pro- Modi government
disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...
with opinion pieces and news content, including opinion pieces falsely attributed to European politicians, and that they were sourcing material from a vast network of fake news websites run by the "Srivastava Group". The report also concluded that they had spread anti-Pakistan and sometimes anti-China disinformation with the primary aim of this fake news coverage being to "discredit Pakistan" in international forums. The report noted that mainstream Indian news media regularly relies on content provided by ANI, and that ANI had on several occasions provided legitimacy and coverage to the entire "influence operation" run by the fake news network, which relied "more on ANI than on any other distribution channel" o give it"both credibility and a wide reach to its content". ANI is also believed to have gained access to India's intelligence establishment in recent years; in foreign affairs many of its videos depicted protests by fringe lobby groups and activists as if they were large-scale and mainstream. A later investigation by EU DisinfoLab in 2023 found that ANI had consistently quoted think tanks and experts associated with the Srivastava Group that did not appear to actually exist.


Misinformation

Fact checkers certified by the
Poynter Institute The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The school is the owner of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Netw ...
's
International Fact-Checking Network The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The school is the owner of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Netwo ...
have accused ANI of misreporting events. ''The Caravan'' found several pieces of video footage from ANI, wherein logos of random television channels from Pakistan, along with
Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
tickers, were superimposed on news showcasing India in a positive light; their video editors have admitted to forging clips. In July 2021, ANI falsely reported that Chinese weightlifter Hou Zhihui, who won the gold medal in the women's 49 kg weightlifting at the
2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
in Tokyo, would be tested by the International Testing Agency (ITA) for doping, according to ANI's unnamed source. The article also stated that Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, who won silver medal in the same event, would be upgraded to a gold medal if the tests were positive. The
World Anti-Doping Agency The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; , AMA) is an international organization co-founded by the governments of over 140 nations along with the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against d ...
(WADA) and ITA debunked the reports, saying they knew nothing of such tests being carried out and that any developments would be transparently reported on their website. In April 2023, ANI falsely reported a photo of a padlocked grave in Hyderabad, India, as being from Pakistan, claiming it was locked to prevent
necrophilia Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction or acts involving corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its ''International ...
. Fact-checking revealed that the grave was actually secured to prevent unauthorised burials and to protect it from being trampled. In July 2023, ANI falsely blamed Muslims for the sexual assault and rape of two Kuki women during the
2023 Manipur violence 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...
. ANI later apologised for the mistake, blaming erroneous reading of tweets posted by the Manipur police. In August 2024, ANI disseminated misinformation regarding attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh. The controversy erupted after ANI shared a video on social media, which falsely claimed that a man who was seeking justice for his missing son was a Hindu—he was Muslim. The video, initially shared by ANI, was quickly picked up by right-wing accounts and other media outlets that rely on ANI's feed, further spreading the false narrative. Despite ANI deleting the video after being called out for the misleading content, the misinformation continued to circulate on various social media platforms, including Facebook,
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
, and
WhatsApp WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...
, perpetuating the false narrative.


See also

* United News of India, multilingual news agency in India


References


External links

* {{authority control Companies based in New Delhi Indian companies established in 1971 Multilingual news services News agencies based in India