[3][4][5] "Based in Tehran and founded in 1999 by Abolfazl Fateh an ex-aide to former Iranian presidential candidate and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi-ISNA is often quoted by the major international news agencies and has been widely regarded as "a politically moderate news source" in Iran.

"Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) was born in an era of major paradigmatic transformations in Iran's press and public discourse, which took place largely under the presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005)".

According to The Guardian, reformist daily Aftab-e Yazd 14 June 2003, in its Editorial column wrote: "It is not easy to overlook the injury caused to Dr Abolfazl Fateh, the hardworking managing director of the Iranian Students' News Agency, who had come to the scene to ensure an accurate reporting of events and prevent any news distortion by foreign media... [His] greatest concern was that if the people do not receive the news from us, they would do so from our enemies or at best from our competitors.

He has been politically-active as a moderate reformist on a platform of reforming the system based on the Iranian Constitution.

Fateh has worked as a researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies in the UK, and is based in Manchester, England.