Country | United States |
---|---|
Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
Owner | U. S. federal government |
Parent | Voice of America |
Established | July 2003 [1] |
Launch date | 18 October 1994 (TV) 22 November 1979 (Radio) |
Former names | VOA Persia Service [1] |
Budget | $23.78 million (FY2010) [1] |
Official website | Official website |
Language | Persian |
Voice of America Persian News Network (VOA-PNN) is a governmental international broadcaster of the United States of America in Persian language. Its headquarters are in Washington D.C. It started to broadcast its programs on 18 October 1994 with a one-hour television program. Its radio programs started on 22 November 1979 with 30 minutes broadcasting per day.
The first manager of the VOA-PNN was Ahmadreza Baharloo. Later managers were Kambiz Mohammadi, Shila Ganji, Behrouz Abbassi, Behrouz Souresrafil, James Glassman, Hida Fouladvand and Ramin Asgard. The current manager of the VOA-PNN is Setareh Derakhshesh. [2]
As of July 2007, VOA-PNN broadcast 1 hour of radio programming a day, 7 hours a day of original programming for television, and a website. [1]
In April 2007, VOA-PNN conducted a phone interview with Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundallah (which was later designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2010 by the U.S.) [3] and introduced him as the leader of the "popular resistance movement". [4] [5] Following the event, Iran accused the U.S. of supporting terrorists by giving them the opportunity to speak. [6] The New York Times Magazine quoted Mehdi Khalaji as "[VOA administrators] do not seem to be able to distinguish between journalism and propaganda. If you host the head of Jondollah and call him a freedom fighter or present a Voice of America run by monarchists, Iranians are going to stop listening". [7] The act resembled the "hallmark of ideological objectivity" in VOA, and was criticized as an "irresponsible American embrace of violent regime change", according to Suzanne Maloney. [8]
Voice of America is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest of the U.S.-funded international broadcasters. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages, which it distributes to affiliate stations around the world. Its targeted and primary audience is non-American.
Ali Ahmad Jalali is an Afghan politician, diplomat, and academic. Jalali served as the Minister of Interior from January 2003 to September 2005. He has also been a distinguished professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. In August 2021, amid the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government, Jalali was rumored to become the leader of the Taliban-controlled interim Afghan government, which he has denied on Twitter as "fake news."
The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), known until 2018 as the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), is an independent agency of the United States government that broadcasts news and information. It is considered an arm of U.S. diplomacy.
Radio Sawa is a U.S. government-funded radio station broadcasting in the Arab world. The station is a service of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc., which also operates Alhurra Television and is publicly funded by the U.S. Agency for Global Media and the U.S. Congress. The word "sawa" means "together" in many Arabic dialects.
The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, popularly called the Smith–Mundt Act, was first introduced by Congressman Karl E. Mundt (R-SD) in January 1945 in the 79th Congress. It was subsequently passed by the 80th Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on January 27, 1948.
Jundallah, also known as the People's Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI), was a Sunni militant organization based in Sistan and Baluchestan, a province in southeast Iran, that claims to be fighting for the "equal rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran".
Free Media Online is a California-based nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and advancing free speech and freedom of the press worldwide through journalistic, educational and information sharing activities. It was founded in 2006 by a group of media specialists with backgrounds in international broadcasting, media marketing, and media research. Free Media Online's main website, FreeMediaOnline.org, FreeMediaOnline.org has a blog Free Media Online Blog focused on media freedom, international broadcasting and public diplomacy. Free Media Online also publishes GovoritAmerika.us GovoritAmerika.US, a Russian-language news analysis website, and Opinia.US Opinia.US, a Polish-English bilingual news analysis website. Both websites offer current news, information and analysis from multiple sources, including US media and US government.
Abdolmalek Rigi was the leader of Jundallah, a terrorist group based in the Sistan and Balochistan Province of southeast Iran. In 2010, he was captured and executed by the Iranian government.
The 2009 Zahedan bombing was an explosion on May 28, 2009 that occurred during Maghrib prayers in Zahedan killing 30 people and wounding 60. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The governor of Sistan and Baluchestan reported that "a group of terrorists were arrested as they were trying to escape from the province".
The 2009 Pishin bombing occurred on October 18, 2009, when a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a meeting in the southeastern Iranian town of Pishin in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. The attack killed at least 43 people including several notable Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, and injured a further 150.
Abdolhamid Rigi was the elder brother of the detained leader of Jundallah, Abdolmalek Rigi. Like his brother, he was a member of the militant Sunni Islamist organization, which is widely recognized as a terrorist group, including by Iran and four other countries.
The 2010 Zahedan bombings were two suicide bombings on 15 July 2010 that targeted Shia worshippers in Iran, including members of the Revolutionary Guards. The bombings targeted those celebrating the birthday of a Muslim saint at the Jamia mosque in Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchestan. Responsibility for the attacks was claimed by Jundullah in revenge for the execution of their leader by the Iranian government. Amongst the reactions and national and supranational condemnations, Iran blamed the United States and Israel for facilitating the attack.
Public diplomacy in the Islamic Republic of Iran refers to the public relations efforts to disseminate information about the Islamic Republic of Iran. Such efforts seek to communicate with foreign publics in order to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence. Instruments of public diplomacy in the Islamic Republic of Iran include cultural exchanges, film and print media, and sports diplomacy.
Radio propaganda is propaganda aimed at influencing attitudes towards a certain cause or position, delivered through radio broadcast. The power of radio propaganda came from its revolutionary nature. The radio, like later technological advances in the media, allowed information to be transmitted quickly and uniformly to vast populations. Internationally, the radio was an early and powerful recruiting tool for propaganda campaigns.
Television was first introduced to Iran in 1958, as a privately-owned and commercially-operated enterprise, before being nationalised, remaining a state-controlled monopoly, first of National Iranian Radio and Television, and following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
The Sistan and Baluchestan insurgency, part of the Balochistan conflict, began approximately in 2004 and is an ongoing low-intensity asymmetric conflict in Sistan and Baluchestan Province between Iran and several Baloch Sunni militant organizations which are designated as terrorist organizations by Iran.
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The arrest of Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundallah Terrorist group, took place on 23 February 2010 through an international operation by Iranian security forces. Rigi was extracted from a passenger jet on his way from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence had tracked Rigi's movements for five months before arresting him.
The attack of Tasooki was a terrorist attack against Iran. It took place at 21:00 on 25 Esfand 1384 in Zabol-Zahedan road near the police station. The perpetrators were members of the Baloch religio-political insurgency named Jundallah (Iran). The attack left 22 dead and 7 captured.in that night the forces of jundallah and Abdolmalek rigi attacked several passing vehicles, mostly buses, in the guise of police and killed 21 Shia male passengers in front of their wives and children.
April 2007 Mr Rigi appears on Voice of America radio
...there was fury when Rigi, Jundullah's leader, was interviewed on the (government-run) Voice of America in 2007 and described as the leader of a "popular resistance movement".