UN Radio first produced radio and television programmes related to a peacekeeping mission in 1989, led by former United Nations High-Commissioner for Human Rights, the late Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed on the bombing of the UN offices in Iraq, in August 2003.
In 1992, UN Radio established its first broadcasting facility on the ground as part of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, UNTAC, led by Joao Lins de Albuquerque, a Swedish-Brazilian journalist who later was appointed UN Radio Service Editor-in-Chief in New York.