Overview

• About 50 to 75 Farsi-speaking staffers who were placed on paid administrative leave in March have been called back to work
• Recalled journalists are tasked with producing counter-programming aimed at challenging narratives from Iranian state media
• Before its March shutdown, VOA Persian service delivered more than four hours of daily television and online programming to Iran
• VOA teams are preparing to resume full satellite TV transmissions into Iran in addition to online updates
• The 2025 shutdown of VOA and its affiliates has triggered legal challenges and political debates over the future of U.S. government-funded international media