DUSHANBE, February 9, 2011, Asia-Plus — Iran has purchased all necessary equipment for a common TV channel project, Iranian Ambassador to Tajikistan Ali-Asghar Sherdoust announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on February 8.
According to him, the equipment will be delivered to Tajikistan only after the Tajik authorities send an official letter on the date of launch of the common TV channel to the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe.
“Germany company from which the equipment has been purchased guarantees that it will deliver and install the equipment within 20 days,” says Sherdoust, “Experts from this company will stay in Tajikistan during several months to train Tajik journalists in how to operate the equipment.”
Iranian diplomat added that the Iranian side had already prepared more than 300 various programs for the common Persian-language TV channel.
He also noted that implementation of the Persian-language TV station project was postponed last year due to some reservations expressed by Afghan officials. “Afghanistan suggested that the common television network should broadcast programs in Pashto as well, but the channel is being created for the Persian-speaking countries and the channel must broadcast its programs in Persian. If we planned broadcasting in different languages, there more than ten languages in Iran alone.” Iranian envoy, however, hopes that the Afghan sign will join the project.
According to Sherdoust, the common Persian-language television channel is expected to make its first broadcast in March, during celebrations of the Navrouz holiday.
We will recall that Tajikistan, Iran and Afghanistan leaders met in Dushanbe in 2006 and agreed to establish a joint television channel. At 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 join 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.
