DUSHANBE, September 13, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry says the issue of laying legal foundation for opening of a common Persian-language TV channel in Dushanbe is being solved.
“All necessary political documents have already been adopted and the sides are currently solving the issue of legal implementation,” said Davlat Nazriyev, a spokesman for the Tajik MFA. “As soon as the legal foundation for opening of the TV channel’s headquarters in Dushanbe is laid, the issue of payment of customs duties for the equipment for the TV channel will be automatically removed.”
Meanwhile, representative of the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe says Iran has purchased all necessary equipment for the common TV channel project for 2 million euros and it has been delivered to Dushanbe.
“The equipment has been stuck in the Dushanbe airport, because the Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan insists on payment of 400,000 U.S. dollars in customs duties,” said the representative of the Iranian diplomatic mission. “Meanwhile, under the government-to-government agreements, the equipment must be exempted from customs duties.”
In 2010, implementation of the Persian-language TV station project was postponed due to some reservations expressed by Afghan officials. Afghanistan suggested that the common television network should broadcast programs in Pashto as well.
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.
