Iran has a young population that has its own demands as far as media and culture are concerned. To meet the demands of this young population the government strongly supports media and cultural activities and subsidizes the press and the film industry in particular to promote private sector's participation in cultural activities. The children can also  find their own interest in the bookshops and the market under   the school  age and kindergarten.

3027 titles of books were published in Iran in 1979. The figure has reached to 9505 titles in 1995; and while there were 362 public libraries with 1549000 books in the country in 1979 the number of libraries reached to 635 with 4883000 books in the year 1995. In the meantime the number of readers who went to the libraries has been increased from 5 million to 16 million.

At the same time the Iranian press have also had their own rapid growth. Before the Islamic revolution there were 86 newspapers and magazines in Iran. Their number has reached to 437 in the year 1995 and their quality is also improving thanks to a highly competitive press festival that held its third edition in May 1996.

The Iranian film industry that produces about 60 feature films every year has undergone dramatic qualitative changes in the past decade. There is rarely an international film festival anywhere across the globe that has no Iranian film in one of its sections. Before the Islamic revolution Iran had 145 movie theaters with 72971 seats. There are now 280 movie houses with 171723 seats.

The amount of radio programs broadcast on the Iranian radio network has had an 84% rise in 1995 in comparison to the year 1977; while the growth in the area of production of programs during the same period has been 94 percent. The growth rate has been even higher in provincial radio stations across Iran.

The number of Iranian TV channels has been increased from 2 in 1979 to 5 in 1996 in order to meet the requirements of different tastes. The production of television programs in 1995 has had a growth of 170 percent in comparison to the figure relating to the year 1977. The external services of IRIB has broadcast more than 3000 hours of programs in more than 30 languages in the year 1995.

IRIB 1, one of the two nationwide TV channels now covers more than 92 percent of the country. The coverage was only 23 percent in 1979.

There are 5 TV channels and scores of radio stations as well as a televised teletext service in Iran. All of them are independent of the government but their activities are supervised by a council represented by members of legislative, judiciary and executive bodies.

The first Iranian radio station started its programs in 1940. It was about two decades later that Iran's first TV stations became operative first in Tehran and then in Abadan.

The official name of  the  Iranian radio  and television  is The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). IRIB has its representation offices in Bonn, Beirut, Paris, Tokyo, London and some other major capitals. The external services of IRIB broadcast radio and TV programs in more than 20 different
languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, Pashtu, Russian and Armenian. Radio coverage is almost worldwide. However, in Tehran foreign language radio programs may be listened to on the FM band .

On television, every night there is an English news program on IRIB 3 which may be watched on Eutlesat 2 satellite along with other programs on IRIB 1 and IRIB 2.

Iran is probably the  only   country in  the world  whose national radio network  broadcasts  live and     uncut   the details of   the  proceedings  of the country's   parliament (Majlis).
 
The Good   Morning Show  on the Iranian radio, is well  known for its  openness. Almost everybody who  has a telephone at his or her disposal  can  voice  her or his criticism
 
of  almost any  social,  political, cultural or  economic  issue  through this program.
 The Iranian    television's news   programs  were the    only  reliable source  of information about the  1991 Persian Gulf  war across the region wherever  its signal could  reach. Both  the Iranian radio  and  television  have access to a variety  of news sources  from all over the  world   while they  have  their own foreign correspondents across  the five continents  to get first hand accounts of events.
 
All the  five TV networks as well as radio stations in Iran are constantly expanding their geographical coverage. Beside news programs , they  also provide education and entertainment for their audience.

The Iranian News Agency was founded in 1934. It was renamed as the Islamic Republic of Iran's News Agency (IRNA) in 1981.

In addition to supplying news dispatches to printed and electronic media, IRNA publishes several bulletins of news and commentary on various specialized matters in Persian and a number of foreign languages including English..

Address: Yousefabad Intersection, Valiasr Ave.
 Tel.:8892201 and 8892051-9

There are about 500 periodicals and journals of various interests in Iran. Most are published in Tehran. The following list  includes only the phone and fax numbers of the daily newspapers that are published in Tehran. Please note that only three papers are printed in English; the others are printed in Persian.
 

Abrar
Tel.:8840375 -8
Fax:8849200 Aftabgardan(for chlidren)
Tel.:2059386 -90
Fax:2057120

Akhbar
Tel.:8851883 - 658095
Fax:658272

Hamshahri
Tel.:2059386 -90
Fax:2058811 - 2053357

 Iran
Tel.:8761720 -22
Fax:8761621 - 8761197 Iran News (English)
Tel.:8880231-3
Fax:8866030

Jomhouri Eslami
Tel.:306114-20
Fax:216045

Kar-o- Kargar
Tel.:6414849
Fax:6402440

Kayhan International (English)
Tel.:3110251-9
Fax:3114228

Salaam
Tel.:8802477 -9
Fax:8802480

Tehran Times (English)
Tel.:8808293
Fax:8808214
 

Et'telaat
Tel.:3281
Fax:3111223

Kayhan
Tel.:3110251
Fax:3114228

 Ressalat
Tel.:892641-2
Fax:890587