91Èȱ¬

Television

The television channel is integrated with the 91Èȱ¬'s existing Persian-language radio and online outputs to provide the most modern news and information service.

Broadcast from studios and a newsroom in London, it is freely available to anyone with a satellite dish in the region, via Hotbird and Telstar 12 satellites, as well as online, via bbcpersian.com.

91Èȱ¬ Persian TV broadcasts for eight hours a day, seven days a week, in peak viewing time – from 17.00 to 01.00 Tehran time and 18.00 to 02.00 Kabul time (13.30-21.30 GMT).

Broadcast at primetime, the channel showcases high-quality, accurate, impartial, editorially independent, balanced news and analysis from a global perspective.

91Èȱ¬ Persian TV covers a broad news agenda including politics, culture, science, business, economics, technology, social issues and the arts. It also shows investigative current affairs programmes, alongside high-quality 91Èȱ¬ factual, cultural and educational documentaries.

The channel also covers international and major local issues from a regional perspective. While its news and information programming focuses on Iran and the surrounding region, it also focuses on the role Iran plays in the world.

91Èȱ¬ Persian TV carries multimedia discussion programmes and debates – encouraging a wide range of voices in conjunction with the 91Èȱ¬'s well-established and trusted Persian-language radio and online services.

Radio

91Èȱ¬ World Service broadcasts in Persian on shortwave and medium wave; and on FM in Afghanistan. It can be heard for eight hours daily.

91Èȱ¬ Persian offers radio news bulletins, current affairs programming, discussion shows and phone-ins; as well as arts and culture programmes.

Electronic media in Iran are exclusively under government control, and as such there is currently no prospect of having an FM presence for the 91Èȱ¬.

Online

bbcpersian.com is the 91Èȱ¬'s award-winning online news and information service for Persian-speaking web-users. It is updated 24 hours a day.

Since its launch in 2001, bbcpersian.com has grown rapidly in popularity. It enjoys high levels of trust in its content, according to independent surveys.

The internet is hugely popular among Iranians, particularly among the under-25s, who constitute over half of the country's population.

As with many of the 91Èȱ¬'s 31 non-English language websites, bbcpersian.com was groundbreaking as the first serious multimedia news site in the Persian language. Many Iranian newspapers and Persian-language websites across the world are now reproducing its news and analysis.

bbcpersian.com has been largely blocked in Iran by the government since January 2006. While around half the traffic came from within Iran before the blockage, the site now receives around 20 million page views each month, the vast majority of which comes from Persian-speakers in Eurasia, North America and Europe.

The 91Èȱ¬ has recently improved the design and functionality of the site, tailoring the presentation and localisation of its content for global Persian-speaking audiences. In addition to access to the 91Èȱ¬ Persian radio programming, the revamped website also offers audiences extensive video content and enables them to watch 91Èȱ¬ Persian TV.

Television programmes and news presenters

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Programmes

News

News is at the heart of 91Èȱ¬ Persian TV which reports all the latest international and regional events with a global perspective, enabling audiences to follow stories from all over the world, to engage directly with the 91Èȱ¬ and to share views on the major events of the day.

Emrooziha (Youth)

Young audiences are the focus for this weekly review of global news events. Aimed at an audience group which is large in number but rarely represented on screen, this programme ensures they have a place to share their opinions.

Kook (Tune)

Behzad Bolour presents this weekly music programme about Iranian and world music. Featuring major interviews, top-ten ratings and the latest music videos, this really is one programme music lovers won't want to miss.

Click

An essential weekly guide to digital technology, this programme de-mystifies gadgets, keeps viewers up to date and reviews the latest innovations and websites.

Be-ebaarat-eh Digar (Hardtalk)

91Èȱ¬ TV news interviewers bring their expertise to the channel with this 30-minute, in-depth weekly interview programme. Guests range from international political leaders and entertainers to corporate decision-makers and ordinary people facing extraordinary challenges.

Varzeshe Haft (Sport Seven)

The world of sport and athletics is big news and big business, as this weekly round-up reveals. It includes all the latest reports from major international sporting events and key interviews.

Nowbat-e Shoma (Your Turn)

The audience takes centre stage in this weekly interactive debate programme which is broadcast across the 91Èȱ¬ Persian multimedia output of TV, radio and online. It encourages participation in topical debates, connecting people and their views from throughout the region via telephone, email, SMS or webcam.

Tamaashaa (Spectacle)

This is a weekly arts and culture programme that keeps audiences up to date on global and regional events, from film launches and book reviews to major art exhibitions and performances.

Ekran (Film)

This monthly programme looks at the world of cinema, featuring film reviews, reports from film festivals and interviews with leading directors and actors.

Khabarnegaaraan (Reporters)

91Èȱ¬ reporters bring their personal perspective, insight and analysis to the week's news. This programme calls on the 91Èȱ¬'s 250 specialist correspondents, based in more than 70 bureaux around the globe, to add more depth and understanding to the stories in the news.

Aapaaraat (Documentary Showcase)

A weekly showcase of the best Iranian, Afghan and Tajik documentary films, followed by a discussion and reviews of the films and topics featured.

News presenters

Sima Alinejad began her journalism career in 1990 when she started contributing stories to several Iranian magazines including the renowned monthly Iran Transportation. In 1993 she joined 91Èȱ¬ Persian radio as a correspondent and presenter. She has worked as editor of news and documentary programming for 91Èȱ¬ Persian radio. She was responsible for the launch of the 91Èȱ¬ Persian website, bbcpersian.com, and went on to work as the website's editor. In 2002 Sima went to Kabul for the 91Èȱ¬ to train Afghan journalists. She returned to Afghanistan twice more, in 2004 as Regional Information Coordinator for UNHCR and in 2005 as Country Director for the 91Èȱ¬ World Service Trust's (91Èȱ¬ WST) Afghan Education Programme. Before joining Persian TV, Sima was the Country Director for the 91Èȱ¬ WST Iran Education Programme.

Farnaz Ghazizadeh has worked for some of Iran's most respected newspapers, including Neshat, Yas-e Nou and the weekly Zan (Woman). She began her broadcast career in 2000 as the presenter of a daily science programme for Iranian television. In December 2003 Farnaz emigrated to Holland with her family where she joined several other Iranian journalists to start the news website Roozonline. She joined 91Èȱ¬ Persian in 2005 as a radio correspondent. She has produced and presented news and feature programmes, most notably, Your Voice and Seventh Day. Najieh Ghulami was born in Afghanistan to a Herati mother and a Kabuli father. She was three years old when her family moved to Iran in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Najieh began her broadcasting career in 2001 as a reporter for the 91Èȱ¬ Persian service in Mashhad; the capital of Khorasan province in Northeast Iran. She was the first Persian-speaking journalist to be accredited by the Iranian government to work for the 91Èȱ¬ in Iran.

Jamaluddin Mosavi started working for the 91Èȱ¬ in 2001 when he joined the 91Èȱ¬'s Central Asia magazine in Iran and Afghanistan. Before joining the 91Èȱ¬, he was the editor of a weekly publication for Afghan refugees living in Mashhad, the province capital of Iran's Khorasan province where he also managed a UNHCR project to train young Afghan journalists. Jamaluddin is a native of Bamyan province in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan.

Nader Soltanpour began his journalism career in 1997 in Toronto, Canada, as a producer and presenter of a weekly radio programme for the Iranian community called Persian Voice. In 2000 Nader turned Persian Voice into Canada's first nightly radio programme in the Persian language. In 2005 Nader joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a writer and producer for the World Report, Canada's most listened to morning news programme. Nader joined 91Èȱ¬ Persian TV as a presenter in 2008.