GVF — Pro-opposition satellite channel Rasa television has been forced to shut down “until further notice” owing to budget constraints.
According to pro-Green Movement website Jaras, the channel halted its activities on 7 March after having failed to secure funding for its operations. More than a year after the June 2009 presidential elections, Rasa TV was launched to break the Iranian government’s monopoly over the flow of news and information and to promote human rights and democracy in the country amongst a wider audience.
State-controlled broadcasters played a pivotal role in quelling the massive protests against Ahmadinejad’s re-election.
In October 2011, the station announced that despite the growing number of Rasa viewers both in and out of the country, the channel would probably shut down in the near future owing to a lack of financial resources. “These days, Rasa is not in a good position. The state has blocked all of Rasa’s financial revenues, and with intelligence work, it has identified and terminated [Rasa’s financial supply line]. And since Rasa, by its own decision, does not accept funds from any government, the continuation of its activities are dependent on its ability to resolve this setback,” the group said in a statement.
The organisation’s strict protocols prohibit it from receiving funds from states, which some believe is an important reason for its financial shortcomings. The channel, which began its work with the blessing of the Green Movement’s leaders Mahdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, has stressed its position as a financially independent news source.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, Malaysia-based Rasa presenter Samaneh Bazrpour expressed hope that the channel would be able to raise enough funds in order to return to the airwaves. She said that Rasa’s financial troubles were partly rooted in the international sanctions against Iran.
“The issue is that many of the financial problems stem from the [international] sanctions because much of the financial support for Rasa came from inside the country,” she argued.
Bazrpour, said that Rasa’s attempts at securing funds had been hampered by international sanctions on Iran’s banking sector.
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, announced on Thursday that it was expelling more than thirty Iranian financial institutions as a result of European sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme.
“These developments could have had legal consequences for Rasa,” added Bazrpour.
She also told Radio Farda that since Rasa’s launch in August 2010, some of her colleagues, like fellow presenter Ali Jamshidi, had been summoned for questioning by Malaysian authorities over their activities.