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tajikistanweb.com

The BBC World Service has ceased broadcasting its special program in Persian for Tajikistan and Persian-speaking population of Central Asia. The Persian Central Asia Magazine went on air for the last time on 30 June. The project founded in 1995 evolved into a special magazine for Tajik audience of the BBC in November 2003.

The head of Asia Pacific Region of the BBC World Service Behrouz Afagh says that the number of listeners in Tajikistan dropped dramatically after the FM transmission of the program in the country was hindered by local authorities in January 2006. The BBC Persian Section’s lengthy negotiations with Dushanbe did not bear any fruit and continuing the broadcast seemed to be unfeasible.

However, says Afagh, the BBC has not decided to turn its back on its Tajik audience. Instead, it will strengthen the BBC webpage for Tajikistan by shifting it from a double-script page into a colourful Cyrillic site with more stories from the country. Furthermore, Tajikistan will be present in the forthcoming BBC Persian TV channel as well.

According to Behrouz Afagh, changes will not affect the number of the BBC Persian journalists in Tajikistan as they will be involved in online and TV activities and their radio reports will be broadcast in other Persian programs of the BBC World Service.