Fars News Agency
| Abbreviation | FNA |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2003 |
| Type | News agency |
| Location | |
Official language | Persian |
Managing Director | Payam Tirandaz |
| Mohsen Mahdian | |
Parent organization | Independent and close to the IRGC |
| Website | www |
The Fars News Agency (Persian: خبرگزاری فارس) is a news agency in Iran that is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), one of the three branches of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces. While it describes itself as "Iran's leading independent news agency", it is widely described by Western news media to be a "semi-official" news agency of the Government of Iran.
Fars has been described by the Iran Disinformation Project as the cornerstone of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' disinformation and propaganda campaign. Fars News' disinformation campaign "reaches across Iran's borders, spreading rumors and lies about dissidents, human rights, labor, political activists, and intellectuals." One propaganda technique is to consistently publish interviews with western pundits and analysts such as conspiracy theorist James Fetzer who echo Tehran's propaganda.
The Fars News Agency .com domain has been blocked by sanctions applied by the US Treasury since 25 January 2020. On 15 September 2023, the United States Department of the Treasury added the Fars News Agency to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)'s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.