The inauguration ceremony of the International Iran Press News Agency was held on Tuesday, April 16, 2019.
Present at the ceremony, held at the IRIB Conference Center, were Dr. Mohammad Mehdi Mazaheri, President of the ECO Cultural Institute; Dr. Ali Asgari, director-general of IRIB; Hojatoleslam Qomi, Deputy International Affairs of the Supreme Leader's Office; Dr. Peyman Jebelli, Deputy director of IRIB World Service; Hojatoleslam Doa'i and a number of cultural and media figures and diplomats residing in Tehran.
According to ECI public relations, speaking at the ceremony, Dr. Mazaheri congratulated the launching of the International Iran Press channel and said: "ECO Cultural Institute, in close collaboration with deputy IRIB World Service, has on its agenda the launching of the first ECO Television Union. The ECI President further said: "I hope that we could soon see ECO TV presidents in Tehran to be hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), so that we could plan 'media peace' based on cultural commonalities to confront hostilities."
Elsewhere at the event, Dr. Ali-Asgari, IRIB director general, spoke pointing out to the broad media strategies of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the world and added: "Iran Press is a serious program that had to be implemented and I hope, this international news agency could best attract audiences".
Moreover, speaking at the ceremony, Dr. Peyman Jebelli, the deputy director IRIB, said: "There are projects being devised to rectify the image of the country because we are somehow, victims of image makings by the Western countries". He then continued his remarks saying: "Iran Press is the first state news agency in the world that provides pictorial/movie reports not being narrated by any journalist to other parts of the world".
Abbas Mohammad Nejad, head of the Iran Press news agency, was the next speaker who stated: "There are currently 73 freelance journalists working in 23 countries with this news agency, and there are ones present in 27 of our provinces".
The ceremony concluded with the commemoration of the successful directors working at the IRIB World Service, and was attended by the director general of IRIB and the ECI president.