There is no VOA "Radio Farsi," and, besides, it's still on the air.

"Under severe budget constraints, Voice of America (VOA)--whose mandate is to provide both the news and an American perspective on world events--recently closed down its Radio Farsi service along with a number of other critically important language services, such as those in Russian and Georgian. Needless to say, these cuts did not send positive signals about American engagement in countries like Russia and Iran, where free media are under pressure. Television in Farsi is still being broadcast from VOA headquarters, but it is being blocked on the Internet by the Iranian government, which clamped down on Internet access the day after the election and has restored only limited access since. TV satellite dishes remain a target of the Iranian authorities, making possession a highly dangerous proposition." Helle C. Dale, director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies and deputy director of the Davis Institute for Foreign and Defense Studies of the Heritage Foundation, 19 June 2009.
     Is she maybe confusing "Radio Farsi" with Radio Farda? Radio Farda, formerly an RFE/RL-VOA joint project, is now entirely under RFE/RL, and is on the air 24 hours a day. According to this transmission schedule, VOA Persian continues to broadcast radio six hours a day. So US international broadcasting transmits radio in Persian thirty hours a day, including six hours during which Iranians must decide if they want to listen to a US radio station or to a US radio station.
     Ms. Dale is another conservative think tank fellow who thinks the United States should spend more liberally on international broadcasting. If there were any fiscal conservatives in Washington (just hypothetically speaking, of course), they might note that Britain spends less than the United States on international broadcasting, but has more audience. Posted: 20 Jun 2009 Permalink Print