Arta FM is an independent, multilingual community radio station broadcasting in the Jazeera region in North-East Syria, also known as the Hasaka province. It started broadcasting in July 2013 from Amuda, where it is headquartered.
Arta FM is the first and only Syrian radio station broadcasting in four languages: Kurdish, Arabic, Syriac and Armenian – the local languages spoken in north Syria. It is also one of a few media outlets in Syria that actively work to improve inter-communal relations. Arta FM has established a solid reputation as a reliable source of local news and information, not only among its listeners, but also for other media outlets and civil society organisations inside and outside Syria. As a non-partisan community radio station with no political or religious agendas, it has established itself as an independent “voice of people” on matters that concern them.
Arta FM is the radio number one in NE Syria, as evidenced by various independent audience research studies.
Audience research commissioned by Free Press Unlimited and released in January 2021 found that Arta FM was by far the most popular and most trusted radio station in north-east Syria.
Similarly, audience research commissioned by IREX in 2017 and 2019 found that Arta FM ranked #1 out of 51 stations in the Hasakah (Jazeera) region. 90% of the respondents mentioned Arta FM when asked unprompted what stations they were familiar with, and 93% said they preferred the station to all other media outlets in the region.