As of 24th of March 2022, Anchor.fm has blocked the access of all Iranian podcasters and listeners to its services. In an act that came with no warning, Iranian podcasts hosted on Anchor suddenly became unavailable. The team at Anchor and Spotify have yet failed to provide any explanation as to why the decision to block Iranian citizens from using Anchor has been made.

We would like to remind the team at Anchor and Spotify of how their lack of responsiveness and their decision to block Iranian citizens of their services is an act against freedom of speech. We are asking Anchor to revise their decision of silencing the voice of Iranian podcasters for reasons mentioned below:

1.     Anchor, as the only podcasting host available free of charge, is hosting most of the podcasts produced in Iran and by Iranian citizens. Due to international sanctions against Iran the Iranian citizens do not have access to international monetary services and therefore cannot access chargeable hosting sites.

2.     Anchor has until now performed a significant role in allowing the free flow of information in Iran where heavy censorship laws prevent Iranian citizens from exercising Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Listening.

3.     By blocking the access of the Iranian citizens to Anchor, it problematically stands by and contributes to the efforts of the Iranian government in silencing its citizens and censoring the free flow of information globally.

4.     The decision to block the access of the Iranian citizens to Anchor is against the ethos and the slogan of Anchor: “For everyone, everywhere, for free”. Anchor is preventing Iranians from sharing their voice and from being heard.

We strongly hope that Anchor and Spotify consider the impact of their decision to block the access of Iranian citizens to Anchor and to reverse their decision immediately. Their decision to silence Iranians is a devastating attack on the global notions of democracy and freedom of speech.

This appeal is supported by the following members of the Iranian and international podcasting community:

Zoha Zokaei | Price of Secrecy Podcast

Neena Pathak | NPR

Laleh Anbari | Radio Laleh

Eleanor McDowall | Radio Atlas

Mojtaba Farahat | Minibusnameh & Tarpand

Nina Garthwaite | In The Dark

Khashayar Noor | BioCast

Jadi | RadioGeek

Kaitlin Prest | Mermaid Palace

Mohammad pourrashidi | Tanzpardazi Podcast

Heloiza Barbosa | Faxina Media

Raam Emami | Masty o Rasty Podcast

James T. Green | Molten Heart

Roodabeh | Podnameh

Michelle Macklem | Constellations

Mahdi Aghaee | Ahangsaz podcast

Brit Jensen | Independent audio documentary maker, Czech Republic/Denmark

Amin Matin | Saate Sefr Podcast

Ariana Martinez | independent producer 

Prospektor Journalism Company, Amsterdam 

Mersen | On podcast

Julia Furlan | Independent 

Jess Shane | Independent Producer

Sofia Saldanha | Independent

Saar Slegers | Independent radio producer

Maartje Duin | Independent podcast producer

Dennis Funk | Independent  

Mitra Kaboli | Independent