Iran to Launch News Service in English

As the BBC World Service puts the finishing touches to its plans for a Farsi satellite TV channel, it has emerged that Iran's state broadcaster will start an English news service next week.

Press TV, scheduled to launch on Monday, is staffed by Iranian and overseas journalists including Britons and Americans.

Following the same logic as al-Jazeera English and others, including France 24 and Russia Today, the broadcaster said it would seek to compete against CNN and BBC World but from a different perspective.

"The news is mostly covered by the western media. We would like to have a say in this," Nader Rad, head of live programming, told Reuters.

"They don't usually cover the whole story ... The news about Iraq does not cover all perspectives. The news about Palestine and Beirut is also like this."

Iran already runs the Arabic satellite channel al-Alam and the Farsi channel Jaam-e Jam.

Officially, ordinary Iranians cannot see any of these channels at home because satellite dishes are banned. In practice, the ban is only sporadically enforced. Mr Rad said Press TV would carry news bulletins, talk shows and documentaries, some of which would be bought from abroad.

"It is a state-owned channel but it is not managed by the state. It has its own guidelines," he said, but would not give further details about editorial policy.

The BBC's plans for a Farsi channel are well advanced as part of an attempt by the World Service to branch out beyond its traditional radio services into the web and satellite television. Last year, the Foreign Office agreed to fund the service to the tune of £15m, promising it would remain editorially independent.