Iran Launches Spanish-Language Satellite TV Channel

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad

President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has officially launched Iran's latest foreign-language television news channel -- a 24-hour satellite broadcast aimed at Spanish speakers worldwide.

The new channel -- called HispanTV -- has been test-broadcasting since autumn of last year from offices in Tehran, using a staff of Iranian, Spanish and Latin American journalists.

It joins another Iranian channel, Press TV, which broadcasts in English but whose London operations lost their British license in January on the grounds it was being controlled editorially from Tehran.

Iran also finances an Arabic channel -- called Al-Alam -- and three other outlets that broadcast programs in Turkish, French and Urdu.

Compiled from agency reports