Radio Zamaneh

Radio Zamaneh at KIT Building, Amsterdam, 2010

Radio Zamaneh (Persian: رادیو زمانه‎) is an Amsterdam-based Persian language radio. "Zamaneh" is the Persian literary term for "time".

Radio Zamaneh is founding by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs but in content an independent broadcasting organization, registered as a non-profit organization in the Netherlands, with its headquarters and studio in Amsterdam. The coordinator of the radio is the Dutch NGO Press Now.

Radio Zamaneh logo

Radio Zamaneh broadcasts in Persian via satellite and the internet. The programs contain political news and bulletins, philosophical, social and cultural issues.

Radio Zamaneh was among a list of foreign organizations, including media outlets and human rights groups, which Iran’s Intelligence Ministry placed on a blacklist over their alleged role in fomenting the unrest that followed the disputed presidential election in June 2009.

Farah Karimi, former Dutch MP, at RZ Workshop.

Mehdi Jami was the director of Radio Zamaneh from the beginning until October 2008. Persian-born Dutch politician and MP, Farah Karimi, was among the founding members of the media. After Jami, from November 2008 until July 2009, Zoran Djukanovic, who is program coordinator of Radio Zamaneh at Press Now, was the Interim Director, with Hossein Alavi as Interim Editor-in-Chief. In July 2009, Farid Haerinejad and Ruth Kronenburg joined Radio Zamaneh as the new Editor-in-Chief and Director of the organization. In January 2011 Arjen de Wolff was appointed as the new director and Haerinejad remained as the editor.

Aims

One of the board meetings of Radio Zamaneh in Amsterdam, 2009)

The aim of Radio Zamaneh, according to its administrators, is "to produce and broadcast informative programs of high journalistic quality, independent from any governmental, political, or social forces inside or outside of Iran (Persia)".

In its press release, Radio Zamaneh announced that "[it] intends to increase and intensify working relations with online bloggers. The Iranian blog sphere is representing one of the largest web communities in the world. They are considered the preserve of young urban Iranians both inside and outside the country. Their voices are not heard by the mainstream media, neither in Iran itself nor in West-based Iranian media. Radio Zamaneh will serve as a platform for Iranian bloggers and reflect their grassroots opinions and views."

History

View over A Scene from Radio Zamaneh Wokshop in Amsterdam, Summer 2006

In 2003, the Dutch parliament planned to establish a Persian-language television station in the Netherlands, but after negative reactions from the Iranian government, the project was halted. Proposals were put forward for promoting independent journalism in Iran and eventually the budget was divided between a number of projects, with Radio Zamaneh and Shahrzad News receiving the bulk of the funding.

In 2006, after three years of negotiations^{[citation needed]}, the Radio Zamaneh board selected London-based Persian journalist and radio producer Mehdi Jami as the director of Radio Zamaneh. Jami moved to Amsterdam, where he held a workshop to initiate Radio Zamaneh's activities inviting more than 30 Iranian writers, journalists and bloggers from San Francisco, Washington D.C., Toronto, London, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Prague and Tehran. Shahrokh Golestan, Abbas Maroufi, Mohammad-Reza Nikfar, Jahanshah Javid, Jamshid Barzegar, Nikahang Kowsar and Behzad Bolour were among them. After a 5-day workshop, Radio Zamaneh released a statement calling itself the "Voice of Persian Bloggers"^{[citation needed]}.

Beginning

Internet broadcasting started on 4 August 2006 while satellite broadcasting started on the 7 September. Short-wave broadcasting started in September 2006 and stopped in January 2008.

A few days before starting the programs, Radio Zamaneh broadcasted Iranian underground music. This act was warmly received by underground musicians in Tehran, but also criticized by many in the target audience because of the harsh language used in many of the songs. RZ gradually divided its musical broadcasts into "Persian Classical", "Persian Symphonic", "Persian Folk", "New Voices", "Western Classical", "Film Music" and "World Music"^{[citation needed]}.

Broadcasts

Radio Zamaneh broadcasts 24 hours in its satellite edition. The daily programs are also available online on Radio Zamaneh's website. The core of its current affairs and cultural, social and economic program is broadcast 1.5 hours a day through internet and satellite. Daily broadcasts start at 18:00 Amsterdam time (20:30 Tehran time) and will be repeated 4 times.

Hacking

In January 2010, hackers calling themselves the Iranian Cyber Army hijacked the website of Radio Zamaneh,weeks after doing the same to China's Baidu Inc search engine and Twitter.com.

According to Reuters: "Since early Saturday [30th January 2010], visitors to the website of Dutch government-funded Radio Zamaneh, which reports on human rights and unrest in Iran, have seen the message "this web site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army" followed by a warning in Persian: "Iranian Cyber Army warns all treasonous mercenaries that it will not leave them at peace even in the bosom of their masters."

The problem was solved after three days.

Organizing & Sponsorship

Human Rights and Freedom of Speech Conference, Organized by Radio Zamaneh,Tropical Museum Grand Hall, Amsterdam, December 2009

Since 2006 to 2010 Radio Zamaneh has been a sponsor of various cultural and human rights projects such as Iranian underground music Festival in Zaandam (2006), Tehran section of Rotterdam Film Festival in Rotterdam (2007), Noor Film Festival (2008), The documentary "Hayedeh: Legendary Persian Diva" (2009)^{[citation needed]}, European tour of Kiosk Band (2010)^{[citation needed]}, etc.

In December 2009 Radio Zamaneh organized a conference about "Human Rights and Press Freedom in Iran" at Amsterdam's Tropical Theatre. The women rights activist Shadi Sadr gave a lecture in this conference.^{[citation needed]}

English Section

Since 2010 Radio Zamaneh launched its English-language page which is among the main sources of Iran-related issues for various international news agencies such as United Press International^{[citation needed]}, Eurasia Review^{[citation needed]}, Los Angeles Times^{[citation needed]} and also Dutch media (eg. Volkskrant^{[citation needed]} and Trouw)^{[citation needed]}.

See also

• Rooz

External links

• Radio Zamaneh (English section)
• Persian radio in Holland gives Iranians news (AP)
• Zamaneh, Yesterday, Zamaneh, Tomorrow (by the editor Farid Haerinejad)
• Radio Tehran - Volkskrant article in Dutch language
• Press Now Statement about Radio Zamaneh
• Speech on openings party Radio Zamaneh from director Mehdi Jami
• Radio Zamaneh Moves to Central Amsterdam (Photo)