What it means
خبرگزاری (khabar-gozāri) is the Persian word for a news agency, the wire-service institution that collects news from reporters in the field and distributes it to newspapers, broadcasters, and websites. It is the institution behind the dateline. In Iran the big خبرگزاری ها (khabar-gozāri-ha) are IRNA, the official state agency, Tasnim and Fars, the conservative agencies close to the IRGC and the security apparatus, and ISNA, the student news agency that historically had a more academic and reformist tilt.
A خبرگزاری is different from a روزنامه (ruzname, newspaper) or a نشریه (nashriyeh, periodical). The agency generates and distributes the raw news; the newspaper publishes it with framing and commentary. In practice the line is blurry, since every major خبرگزاری now runs its own website that functions like a newspaper, but the institutional distinction matters.
How to use it
Khabar-gozari takes the agency name through ezafe: خبرگزاری ایرنا (khabar-gozari-ye irna), خبرگزاری تسنیم (khabar-gozari-ye tasnim), خبرگزاری ایسنا (khabar-gozari-ye isna). It pairs with verbs like گزارش دادن (gozāresh dādan, to report), منتشر کردن (montasher kardan, to publish), and نقل کردن از (naghl kardan az, to cite from).
be naql az khabar-gozāri-ye irnā, jalase emruz bargozār mishavad.
According to IRNA news agency, the meeting will be held today.
به نقل از خبرگزاری ایرنا، جلسه امروز برگزار میشود.
khabar-gozāri-ye tasnim in matlab rā taʾyid kard.
Tasnim news agency confirmed this item.
خبرگزاری تسنیم این مطلب را تایید کرد.
Where it comes from
Khabar-gozāri is a mixed compound. خبر (khabar, news) is Arabic, from the root kh-b-r. گزاری (gozāri) is pure Persian, an abstract noun formed from the verb گزاردن (gozārdan, to perform, render, carry out) plus the abstract noun suffix ـی (-i). The literal sense is the carrying out of news, the performance of news distribution. Parallel formations include نمازگزاری (namāz-gozāri, performance of prayer), شکرگزاری (shokr-gozāri, thanksgiving), and خدمت گزاری (khedmat-gozāri, service rendering). The institutional sense of news agency settled in modern Persian alongside the founding of the first Iranian wire services in the early twentieth century.
In our voice
Reading the dateline of a Persian-language news story tells you almost everything about its angle before you read the headline. ایرنا (IRNA) is the state’s voice, official and cautious. تسنیم (Tasnim) and فارس (Fars) are aligned with the security and IRGC apparatus and lean hardline. ایسنا (ISNA) has historically tilted reformist. Western outlets like بیبیسی فارسی (BBC Persian) and ایران اینترنشنال (Iran International) operate from outside and are blocked inside Iran. The word خبرگزاری is institutionally neutral but the institutions it names are not, and a Persian reader learns the politics of each masthead by heart.
References
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