Voice of America Washington, DC 20237  Tel: (202) 619-2538 Fax: (202) 619-1241 E-mail: pubaff@ibb.gov

Washington, D.C., February 9, 2000—On the eve of key Iranian parliamentary elections on February 18, the Voice of America’s Farsi broadcasts have been deliberately jammed by Iran for the last two weeks, according to monitors in the International Broadcasting Bureau’s Office of Engineering and Technical Services.  Jamming intensified in the first week of February.

“We very much regret that the Iranian government is jamming VOA broadcasts at a time when our Farsi Service is offering special programming on the February 18 elections and the 21st Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution,” said VOA Director Sanford J. Ungar.  “It makes me wonder, ‘What news and information is the Iranian government trying to hide from its people?’  VOA is committed to covering important regional events, and listeners in Iran are complaining that jamming only makes it harder for them to hear these and other VOA programs that are of interest to them.”

The IBB Technical Monitoring Office in Bahrain and monitors at IBB headquarters in Washington, D.C., first observed the jamming of the Farsi services of both VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty during the last week of January.  Detailed monitoring of the situation began by IBB offices in Bahrain and Islamabad; an IBB Remote Monitoring System in Yerevan, Armenia; and contract monitors in Karkala, India; Columbo, Sri Lanka; and Auckland, New Zealand.  Reports from these locations confirmed the Iranian jamming in the last week of January and that it had increased in the first week of February.

Monitoring has identified two forms of jamming.  The first is “bubble jamming,” a fast oscillating tone transmitted by a jamming transmitter operating on the same frequency as the VOA transmitters.  The second is “voice jamming,” broadcasts of the external service of the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran transmitted on the same frequency as VOA Farsi.

The Voice of America broadcasts world, regional, and U.S. news and information in 53 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 91 million listeners.

The International Broadcasting Bureau is an autonomous U.S. Government civilian broadcast service, which is composed of the Voice of America, WORLDNET Television and Film Service, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Marti).  IBB became autonomous on October 1, 1999, and is under the authority of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Contact: George Mackenzie
Phone: 202-619-2538
E-mail: pubaff@voa.gov