Iran's Press TV channel to ‘take on’ the West

The new channel, Press TV, will not align itself with radical Islamic groups, and will provide a third viewpoint.

BY A CORRESPONDENT

24 June, 2007:

Iran is launching a television channel with the self-proclaimed objective of “breaking the stranglehold of the West over the world’s media.”

Iran’s state broadcaster is to launch ‘Press TV’ on July 2, 2007, at a time of mounting international tension over the country’s nuclear program.

Press TV will rope in international journalists from foreign countries, including the United Kingdom.

The proposed channel, to be based in Tehran, is promising the usual fare of half-hour news bulletins, talk shows and documentaries familiar to viewers of established names like CNN and BBC World but with a distinctly Iranian slant.

Mohammad Sarafraz, head of international services of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), has said the main aim of Press TV is to present “an alternative view” on global news.

Sarafraz adds: “Since September 11, Western bias has divided the media into two camps: those that favour their policies make up one group, and the rest of the media are attached to radical Islamic groups like Al-Qaeda. We want to show that there is a different view.”

The Press TV channel, which has over 400 employees, claims it has 26 reporters at different locations worldwide, including Jerusalem, Gaza City and Ramallah on the occupied West Bank as well as New York and Washington.

The channel’s features will include documentaries on aspects of the Islamic world and culture as well as live talk shows broadcast from Damascus, New York and Washington.

Through this challenging television channel project, Iran seems to be following the footsteps of countries like Russia with its ‘Russia Today’ (launched in 2005), France with ‘france24’ and the Doha- based channel ‘al Jazeera,’ the most popular Arab news channel.