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VOA Marks Anniversary of Disputed Iran Election


VOA’s Persian News Network is marking the first anniversary of Iran’s disputed presidential election

Washington, D.C., June 8, 2010 - VOA’s Persian News Network is marking the first anniversary of Iran’s disputed presidential election with interactive webpages, special programs, and the re-broadcast of the powerful HBO documentary For Neda, which PNN is also webcasting to Iran.

On Saturday June 12, the anniversary of the vote, PNN will carry a special live television program devoted to the circumstances surrounding the disputed presidential election, with phone interviews from Iran, and reports from Paris, Rome, Washington, Dubai and elsewhere.

In addition, the PNN program Straight Talk is using the week leading up to the anniversary to focus exclusively on analysis of the vote and its bloody aftermath with guests on set and remote interviews from Iran.

PNN has also re-established a special webpage devoted to Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who became a symbol of Iran's post-election protests when images of her dying moments were captured on cell phones and shown around the world. You can find Neda’s page at: http://www1.voanews.com/persian/news/iran/Neda-Aghasoltan-95787644.html.

The HBO documentary For Neda, which PNN first broadcast June 3 on satellite, will be shown again on June 14, and can be viewed on the PNN website, along with many of the thousands of messages that poured in following her tragic death.

The hour-long documentary, which HBO airs in the United States on June 14 and June 20, contains exclusive video recorded the day she died, and previously unseen footage with friends and family, including interviews with her father, sister and brother. HBO agreed to allow PNN to broadcast the program to its Iranian audience.

Despite jamming of the VOA television signal to Iran, and other efforts to block Iranians from seeing the documentary, messages have been pouring in from those who have managed to view the new film on PNN. One viewer wrote, “It is so upsetting, I cried, but it was beautiful.”

PNN television will broadcast the program again on June 20, the anniversary of Neda's death.

VOA's Persian News Network is the most popular international broadcaster in Iran, reaching nearly 20 percent of Iranians weekly, according to the latest surveys of Iranians 15 and older. Visit PNN’s website at: www.voapnn.com.

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 approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 125 million people. Programs are produced in 44 languages and are intended exclusively for audiences outside of the United States.

For more information, please call VOA Public Relations at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail askvoa@voanews.com.
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