Washington, D.C., February 1, 2008 - Actor George Clooney, officially designated a "messenger of peace" by the United Nations, told Voice of America's (VOA) Persian News Network that as part of his new assignment, he would like to visit Iran.
In a brief exchange with PNN international correspondent Katayoun Beglari-Scarlet at the UN ceremony marking his new role, Clooney added that he had an Iranian friend from Shiraz. The award-winning film actor has spent the past few years campaigning to end the 4 1/2-year war in Darfur and to provide humanitarian assistance to the millions caught up in the conflict. According to the U.N., the actor is the ninth U.N. peace envoy and was selected "for his ability to focus public attention on critical international political and social issues."
VOA has the largest combined radio and television audience of all international broadcasters in Iran, with one in four adult Iranians tuning into a VOA show at least once a week. Programs are also streamed on our website, www.VOANews.com/Persian.
The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts more than 1,250 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 115 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages.
For more information, call the Office of Public Affairs at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail publicaffairs@voa.gov.
