Iran Launches English Satellite TV
The Los Angeles Times reports:
In fits and starts, Iran this month entered the business of providing 24-hour English-language satellite television news programming, competing in a field that includes BBC World, CNN International, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Al Jazeera International and France 24.
The government aims to use Press TV to counter what it sees as a steady stream of Western propaganda against Iran as well as offer an alternative view of world news.
“We are the target of global media war, and there is hardly any media delivering on its commitment,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a July 2 ceremony marking the station’s launch. “We cannot help but be attentive to the agony of our fellow human beings. Even if one day our country is not the target of a bullying power, we will not be indifferent to the world and to oppression.” . . .
But the ads for upcoming documentaries show the channel’s slant. They include “Back From Iraq,” a series about Western correspondents who covered the war and are critical of the conflict; “America Countdown,” in which Americans speak out against the Bush administration; and “AMIA,” a documentary that purports to prove that Israel had a hand in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that has been blamed on Iranian operatives.
Another documentary, “Land of Religions,” is said to show how Iran’s Muslims, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians live peacefully side by side.
According to the Times,
Reporters refer to Israel by its name instead of calling it the “Zionist entity,” as it is on Persian-language channels.
At the network’s Web site today, though, Israel is the “Zionist regime.” A home page news item reads:
Explosions have been reported outside the British and Zionist regime embassies in the Chilean capital of Santiago causing minor damages.
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