Some Tajik experts consider that the Persian-language TV station project has been unrealizable initially.
Thus, Tajik journalist Suhrob Ziyo considers that ten years ago the Persian-language TV station project was more realistic than now.
“That time, relationships between Dushanbe, Tehran and Kabul were cloudless, especially in the fields of culture and exchange of information,” the journalist said.
Another Tajik journalist, Nourali Davlat, believes that the idea of launch of a joint Persian-language TV channel has been unreal initially.
“Like other mass media, television is a tool of ideological propaganda. It is impossible to reconcile the religious (Islamic) ideology of Iran and Afghanistan and the secular ideology of Tajikistan,” Davlat said
In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, the head of the Committee for TV and Radio-broadcasting under the Government of Tajikistan, Mahmadsaid Shohiyon, noted on July 15, 2016 that postponement of the launch of a joint Persian-language TV channel is not politically motivated,
According to him, Iran and Afghanistan have not yet fulfilled their obligations on the project for unknown reasons.
“Under a trilateral agreement concluded between Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran, Tajikistan had to provide premises for the joint TV channel,” said Shohiyon. “We have provided premises in the building of the TV Channel Bahoriston.”
Recall, Iran sent the equipment worth €2 million to Tajikistan for the project in September 2012 but the equipment had not been cleared by Tajik Customs Service. Tajik customs officials said that time that the Iranian side did not have appropriate documents confirming that the equipment is exempted from customs duties. Tajik customs officials reportedly demanded that the supplier pay a US$400,000 customs duty.
According to the Iranian side, the equipment should have been exempted from customs duties in line with a government-to-government agreement between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Tajik customs officials said in September 2012 that no duties are required if the gear is for use by the Iranian Embassy. Otherwise, they said customs duties must be paid by Iran.
The equipment has become technically obsolete and now does not meet modern requirements.
As it had been reported earlier, Tajikistan, Iran and Afghanistan leaders met in Dushanbe in 2006 and agreed to establish a joint television channel. At a two-day ministerial meeting that took place in Dushanbe on March 24-25, 2008, the foreign ministers of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Iran agreed to establish a new Dushanbe-based Persian-language television channel to broadcast in each country. The programs aired by the joint station are expected to focus mainly on cultural issues.
In August 2008, the heads of state of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran signed appropriate documents on the establishment of the joint TV channel in Dushanbe on sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. The headquarters of the television channel would be based in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
But implementation of the Persian-language TV station project has been postponed for an indefinite term due to some technical reasons.
