Iran to launch Spanish television channel

The country of Iran wants the Spanish and Latin community to understand the ideological legitimacy of the Islamic system. They seek to offer “accurate and unbiased” coverage in the Spanish language about what is happening in Iran.

Ezatollah Zarqami, head of IRIB, an Iranian government broadcasting entity that broadcasts in several languages, explained simply in Tehran that “as half of the world’s population speaks Spanish we will start a network within the next few months”. The network is called “Hispan Tv”

One of IRIB’s channels in English is said to have a large bureau in London and prides itself on helping to break the “stranglehold” of the western world over world media coverage. The Iranians hope to give more accurate coverage of Middle East events to the world.

The move is seen as an attempt to oppose what it sees as double standards of the hostile media coverage the region receives from western governments. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has accused many media organizations of exaggerating Middle Eastern issues especially regarding women accused of adultery or murder.

Iran hopes to foster good relations between themselves and countries like Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. In fact, in November of 2009 Ahmadinejad visited the region.

Iran uses satellites to broadcast their news to the world but it is still illegal to install satellite receivers within the country.  Officials try to avoid access to foreign channels by the population as it spreads “cultural decadence”.

Mohamed Sarafad, Hispan TV director, was in Madrid last month to interview aspiring candidates who want to work for the new news channel in Teheran. The salaries offered are about 2,000€ net a month with paid accommodation, Iranian social security and free city transport.

Hispan TV has also paid many Spanish T.V. producers to film various types of program and films for the new channel. Mahmud Alizadeh, the manager of Hispan TV in Madrid, explained that they are also working on dubbing Iranian soap operas and other programs in Spanish to be broadcasted on the new channel.
Hispan TV has also contracted Latin American news reporters from around the globe and signed collaboration agreements with various other news broadcasters.

Mahmud Alizadeh is confident that Hispan TV will start broadcasting 6 hours a day around mid November and after 2 months they hope to be broadcasting 24 hours a day.  The channel will be broadcasted initially in Europe and America with the aid of Spanish satellites, although they hope to contract more satellites in the future.