Information
ARTA for Media and Development is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation registered in
Germany. It was founded in February 2013 by a group of Syrian-Kurdish activists and media
professionals based in and outside Syria.
ARTA’s first project was ARTA FM, an independent, multilingual community radio station
broadcasting in the north-eastern parts of Syria. It is also available online (artafm.com) and on the
NileSat satellite network. ARTA FM started broadcasting in July 2013 from Amuda, where ARTA is
now headquartered.
ARTA FM broadcasts daily 11 hours of live programmes and news in in Kurdish and Arabic, in
addition to weekly programmes in Syriac and Armenian – the four main languages of the local
communities inhabiting the northern parts of Syria, along the Turkish borders. It is listened to by
wide sections of the population in the regions of Amuda, Qamishli, Malikiyya (Derik), Ras al-‘Ayn
and ‘Ayn al-‘Arab (Kobani).
Other ARTA projects include Jin FM, a sister radio station run by women for women, which started
broadcasting from and in Amuda in October 2015.
