Italy launched the first Arabic radio broadcasts from outside the Arab world in 1935

Evidence

Italy was the first in the field with Arabic broadcasts from Bari—the first outside the Arab world— from 1935. Italian cultural organizations and even some religious orders played a part in this propaganda campaign, on which a great deal of money was spent. One permanent memorial of Mussolini’s Arab policy is the marble columns which he donated to the Aqsfia¯ mosque in Jerusalem. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 876

Categorization

• QUESTION: When did Arabic-language broadcasting become a standard tool of great-power outreach, and who adopted the Bari model afterward?
• SHARE: For a media-archaeology friend: Italian Catholic religious orders were conscripted into Fascist Arabic propaganda before 1935 broadcasts from Bari.