(WASHINGTON) — U.S.-funded media organizations Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) are bringing millions of people in Iran and across the Middle East real-time, 24/7 news coverage of the war between Israel and Iran. 

As fighting began over the weekend, Iranians surged to RFE/RL’s Persian-language Service, Radio Farda, for responsible news and information. Since Friday, Farda’s extremely popular Instagram profile attracted 62.5 million video views, a spike of 344%, and traffic to its website rose by 77% compared to its 30-day average. Farda is increasing its coverage to include ten-minute audio news bulletins at the top of the hour 24/7 to meet the needs of our audiences.

Even before the war began, more than 6.6 million Iranians, ten percent of the adult population, accessed Farda each week to get news that was not produced by the state-controlled propaganda networks. 

Farda also provides the outside world a valuable and unparalleled look inside the Islamic Republic. This report features listeners from Tehran describing the intensity of the Israeli attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities. 

Across the Arab Middle East and North Africa, where news is often state-controlled and anti-American, MBN’s Alhurra.com and social media platforms are covering the Israel-Iran hostilities for millions of Arabic speakers. They featured exclusive interviews with high-level figures such as former U.S. State Department Spokesman and Iran expert Alan Eyre and former Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata.  

A segment with Hulata, “Why Israeli Jets Didn’t Use Saudi Airspace,” attracted more than 53 thousand views in less than 40 minutes. Another clip, “How Israel Targeted Iranian Leaders Simultaneously,” also garnered strong audience engagement. 

This coverage comes as the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) attempts to shutter RFE/RL and MBN by unlawfully cancelling their grant agreements. 

As a result, MBN has been forced to terminate 90 percent of its staff and RFE/RL has furloughed some staff and reduced programming. USAGM shut down a transmitter it owns in Kuwait that Farda could use to reach the people of Iran. It has since been reactivated for use by Voice of America (VOA) for only 15 minutes a day after USAGM executives called VOA’s Persian Service back to work on short notice to cover the hostilities and give voice to U.S. officials and experts. 

Ilan Berman, a leading Iran analyst who serves on the boards of RFE/RL and MBN, said:

“This is the most decisive moment in modern Iranian history since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979. America needs to seize it to talk directly to the Iranian people – to educate, to inspire and to tell them that a different future could lie ahead. The more we can do that, the better. 

I’m glad RFE/RL and MBN are still functioning, albeit at diminished capacity. The current conflict with the tyrannical rulers of Iran underscores the need for American voices to counter the lies and disinformation of U.S. adversaries. These tools can’t be allowed to disappear.” 

Berman was the Trump administration’s transition team leader at USAGM before new leadership arrived earlier this year.

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About RFE/RL 

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach a weekly audience of nearly 50 million people in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.  

About Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. (MBN) 

MBN is a multimedia organization whose mission is to provide audiences with Arabic-language news about the United States, important coverage of human rights and governance issues in the Middle East and North Africa, and an essential alternative to the disinformation served up by China, Russia, and Iran. MBN seeks to inform, engage, and connect with the region’s people to support universal freedoms. MBN is a non-profit corporate media outlet financed by the U.S. government through a grant from USAGM, an independent federal agency. The USAGM is a firewall to protect broadcasters’ professional independence and integrity.