[caption id="attachment_128127" align="alignright" width="143"] New president of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Dr. Mohammad Sarafraz[/caption]
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has, in a decree, appointed Mohammad Sarafraz as the new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).
Before assuming the top job, Sarafraz was the head of the IRIBs World Service for two decades during which several foreign-language satellite channels, including Press TV, Al-Alam and Hispan TV were launched.
The English-language Press TV and Arabic-language Al-Alam channels as well as Hispan TV, which airs programs in Spanish, are alternative media outlets which have played a key role in shedding light on the dark side of international developments which is not usually covered by mainstream Western media.
iFilm was another satellite channel which went onair during Sarafrazs tenure as the head of the IRIBs World Service. It broadcasts Iranian soap operas, TV series and feature films dubbed into both English and Arabic.
The presidency of the IRIB was previously held by Ezzatollah Zarghami.