UN Radio was founded in 1946 to promote the universal ideals of the United Nations, including peace, respect for human rights, gender equality, tolerance, economic and social development and the upholding of international law.

In addition to daily programmes, UN Radio produces approximately 1,200 features and documentaries a year, some of them award-winners at prestigious festivals around the world.

The programmes are distributed to 185 countries and more than 2,000 broadcasting stations in 15 languages (Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, Dutch/ Papiamento, English, French, French-Creole, Hindi, Indonesian, Kiswahili, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu). All programmes are available free of charge to broadcasting stations around the world.

As the UN membership grew during the past five decades, so did the outreach of UN Radio programmes. Initially news bulletins and feature programmes were broadcast via shortwave. UN Radio news is now transmitted to many regions of the world by telephone and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines and via satellite. Feature programmes are distributed by tape and cassette. UN Radio also uses the Internet to broadcast and transmit its programmes.