The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) announced on 12 May a significant increase in satellite television news broadcast into Iran.
The Voice of America (VOA) programme News & Views, which for nearly two years has been a nightly 30-minute direct-to-home satellite TV broadcast, is doubling in length leading up to Irans June 17th presidential election. The hour-long Persian-language programme will now air five times a day: the original show live during Irans prime time, plus four repeats with updates as events warrant.
News & Views is covering the election, the reformist candidates, and the calls to boycott the election and for a new referendum. The expanded coverage, funded by the emergency spending bill just passed into law, will be in addition to News & Views regular news reporting, offering news from Iran along with world news round-ups, analyses of issues and events, and special interest and cultural features. The longer show will also feature a womens segment, business and medical reports, and reports from correspondents covering news from Washington, D.C.
Strong coverage of what’s happening in Iran and whats happening around the world is one of the most important things America can do for the Iranian people. These five hours will effectively cover prime time, said BBG chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson. By placing expansion of TV to Iran in the supplemental, the Bush White House and Congress demonstrated its support for what international broadcasting is doing in that part of the world.
The supplemental appropriation includes $7.3 million for the BBG to support expansion of programming to the broader Middle East, including expanding Arabic-language Alhurra satellite television to Europe. The BBG continues to blanket Iran with 24/7 radio broadcasting by VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.