says that under new rules any Iranian who wants to do any kind of work for any foreign-based satellite television station must first get a license from the Ministry of Culture. He didn’t say what the odds were that anyone would get such a license. But he did say that working for either the BBC or VOA was considered “cooperation with the enemy’s intelligence services”—in other words, a criminal offense. He insisted that the VOA was part of the CIA. It was at one time part of the State Department, but decades ago was made part of an independent government corporation, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). Oddly, Moqaddam did not say that Radio Free Europe, which runs Radio Farda, was part of the CIA. Sixty years ago it was started by the CIA. But, like VOA, it has long been part of the BBG, where it is overseen by people from the broadcasting industry named by the president.
