Germany's First Persian TV Station Starts

Germany's first Farsi-language television station "Mohajer International TV" has begun broadcasting a 24-hour test program of music, dance, movies and news, a spokesman said Tuesday. The digital station is currently free to air on the Hotbird 6 satellite system in Germany and hopes to broadcast to other countries in Europe and the Middle East and eventually Iran itself. The spokesman said the station, in which a 50 percent stake is held by Iranian businessman Hassan Arpanahi, would like initially to reach the estimated 6,000 people from the Islamic Republic living in Europe. "We have pro-western, family-oriented programming and we should retain that," the spokesman said. "We want to avoid religious or ideological content." He added the goal is to ultimately finance the channel through advertising. Mohajer was given the green light by German authorities to begin broadcasting in July mainly because of its cultural content, including programs about music, the media, film, lifestyle and cooking. It also has a documentary show and news bulletins. (AFP)