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Additional News Releases

Washington, D.C., June 26, 2001 – In order to enhance coverage of South Asian news and to improve shortwave broadcast reception, the Voice of America’s (VOA) Urdu language service to the South and Central Asian regions will inaugurate a half-hour primetime news show on
July 1. 

The nightly program will be a fully integrated news show opening with a “South Asia Window” and followed by up-to-the-minute coverage of current events. During the weekends, the program will reflect a variety of outlooks in contemporary issues through two features, “Media Roundup,” a survey of newspaper editorials, and “Issues and Opinions,” an analysis of South Asian news.

The new VOA Urdu show will be broadcast daily at 1700-1730 UTC (10 p.m. Pakistan time, 10:30 p.m. India time, 11 p.m. Bangladesh time), shortening the existing hour-long evening show to a half hour from 1400-1430 UTC (7 p.m. Pakistan time, 7:30 p.m. India time, 8 p.m. Bangladesh time). The morning program from 0100-0130 UTC (6 a.m. Pakistan time, 6:30 a.m. India time, 7 a.m. Bangladesh time) will remain the same. 

These three informative programs will have an entirely new format including features on computers, electronic media, youth issues, American culture, and international business. Popular older features, such as “Islam in America,” will be continued in an updated form.

Currently, VOA Urdu has an estimated worldwide listenership of over two million. In addition, VOA Urdu is on-demand at www.voa.gov/urdu/. VOA Urdu is rebroadcast in Toronto and Ottawa, Canada, on Infinity Broadcasting/Radio India; throughout western Canada on Radio Apna Sangeet; Radio CKER in Edmonton, Alberta; Radio Paramaribo in Suriname; Radio Australia; and selected features on Radio Pakistan.

Inaugurated on May 13, 1951, VOA Urdu now has a full-time staff of 14 in Washington, D.C., and correspondents in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi, Pakistan, and Srinagar, Kashmir. 

The Voice of America is a multimedia broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government. VOA broadcasts over 900 hours of news, informational, educational, and cultural programming every week to some 91 million worldwide.  Programs are produced and broadcast in English and 52 other languages.

For additional information, please contact the Office of External Affairs at (202) 619-2538 or send email to pubaff@voa.gov.