Fars News Agency is an Iranian news agency that was founded in 2003. The agency is under sanctions applied by the U.S. Treasury since 2020.
Media assets
Fars News Agency
State Media Monitor Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
Fars News Agency is controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which ensures that the agency is managed by people the Guards agree with, according to local experts. No other information is known about the status of the agency.
Source of funding and budget
Fars News Agency is funded through subsidies from the government, according to local experts. Most of the agency’s budget comes from the government.
Editorial independence
Fars News Agency is referred to as a “semi-official” or state agency controlled by the Iranian government. Fars News Agency is known to be backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which controls to the last details the agency’s editorial coverage.Fars News Agency is known for its misleading and sometimes even outright false news and for its extremist content. The agency was added by the US Treasury on its Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) list, which features individuals and companies whose assets abroad are frozen by US authorities and with whom American citizens are forbidden to deal.
No domestic statute or independent assessment mechanism to validate the editorial independence of Fars News Agency have been identified.
August 2023