[1] A fervent nationalist from early childhood, while attending Firouz Kouhi primary school, Ghotbi joined the Pan-Iranist Foundation (not the Party) at the age 11, a year prior to what the regulations allowed.
He was then retained by the Plan Organization (Sazman-e Barnam-e) and asked to prepare a project for the establishment of a national Iranian television.
He trained young professionals in various required fields and rapidly created a network of television centers covering most provinces throughout Iran.
At the NITV, Reza Ghotbi established Gorouh-e pazhouhesh-e Iran Zamin (Department for Research on Iran), Markaz-e hefz va eshaye-e musiqi-e Iran (Center for the Preservation and Propagation of Iranian Music), Madressey-e āli-e cinema va television (School of Cinema and Television), Kargah-e musiqi-e koodakan va nojavanan (Music Workshop for Children and Young Adults), Kargah-e nemayesh (Theater Workshop), Majalley-e Tamasha (Tamasha magazine) and Entesharat-e Soroush (Soroush Publishing House), amongst others.
Twice during his career, he offered his resignation, butting heads with the intelligence services as he wouldn’t accept censorship in any programming.