Fars News Agency has opened a news bureau in Dushanbe

The Iranian Fars News Agency that has opened a news bureau in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe last week, aimed to use media cooperation between Iran and Tajikistan in a bid to foil West’s soft threats against both Tajikistan and Iran.

The statement came after two days of the inauguration of its corresponding office in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe on Thursday in a special ceremony where the Fars managers said the agency will produce unbiased news and analysis.

“Western media have been the main actors in soft-overthrows and velvet revolutions in the (newly) independent states (of the former Soviet Union), and today the same move is threatening Tajikistan,” said Hamid Reza Moghaddam-Far, Fars News Agency Managing Director in a meeting with Tajik Culture Minister Mirzoshahrokh Asrori.

“Expansion of cultural and media ties between Iran and Tajikistan could foil the soft threats posed by the western media against the two nations,” he added.

The Tajik culture minister, for his part, welcomed launch of activity by FNA’s corresponding office in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, and added that deep cultural and media ties and understanding between the two countries will help further familiarize the people of Iran and Tajikistan with each other.

Fars is planning more offices in other Central Asian countries as well as in Afghanistan and southeastern Asia.

The Dushanbe staff is made up only of Tajik journalists. Moghaddam-Far told journalists that the agency plans to organize workshops for Tajik journalists in Tajikistan and Iran.

Fars is a privately owned news agency, but is considered close to the Iranian judiciary. Founded in 2002, it produces news in Persian, English, Turkish, and Arabic.

The Dushanbe office will be the first in a series of corresponding offices to be operating in the Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent and Afghanistan under the supervision of FNA’s regional office.