Iran To Launch English-Language TV Channel

Iran's state broadcasting company is launching an English-speaking satellite TV channel to counter the West's influence in covering news, the television's web site says.

The 24-hour PRESS TV news channel said its goal was to "break the global media stranglehold of western outlets," and "show the other side of the story" in the Mideast.

The English-speaking network has 26 correspondents around the world and is due to launch on July 2, Mohammad Sarafraz, the vice president of Iran's state broadcast company, told reporters.

Sarafraz accused western TV channels of being biased against Middle East nations and of spinning the news the way the U.S. government wants.

He said that "under the pretext of combating terrorism," the U.S. government had used the September 11 terrorist attacks to "legitimize its invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq."

In the wake of these events "the western media have been trying to distort the news about the Muslim world," Sarafraz said at a press conference in Tehran last week to launch the new TV channel.

"So, we thought of setting up an English-language news channel to counteract the lies of the western media," he said.