Following the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in August 1941, the Foreign Office encouraged broadcasting about king's autocratic style and republican systems of Government.

However the risk of the Iranian nationalisation of Anglo-Persian Oil Company created an exceptional circumstance causing the Foreign Office to issue memorandums of advice and lists of points to make to the BBC, and the amount of broadcasting more than doubled.

This caused many Iranians to believe the Persian Service was not independent, and an advisor of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh said the "BBC was the voice of British imperialism and we did not trust it".

[2] In the years before the revolution, the BBC Persian Service became highly trusted and liked by listeners, and gained mass appeal beyond intellectuals and the Iranian diaspora.

[2] Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his supporters became critical of the BBC in creating the environment for the popular upheaval that eventually led to the Iranian Revolution in February 1979.

In the year before the revolution, the Persian Service interviewed the major contenders: one with Ayatollah Khomeini, three or four with Prime Minister Shapur Bakhtiar and two with Karim Sanjabi, leader of the National Front who were seeking a peaceful democratic transition from the Shah's rule.

[2] During the revolution, Iranian media was heavily censored, resulting in long strikes by journalists, and the BBC Persian Service gained an even larger country-wide audience.

BBC Persian have been accused of the publication of a large amount of low important news and information, fragmented and sometimes archival images that have drawn severe criticism from the audience of this media claiming to be honest.

Iran's permanent mission to the UN in Geneva stated "BBC Persian is not an independent media network ... Its financial and political affiliation with the ministry of foreign affairs and the British security agencies has been very serious.