DUSHANBE, August 7, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- The private TV channel, Simoi Mustaqili Tojikiston or SMT (Independent TV of Tajikistan), has broadcast its programs on a new wave since August 6.

The SMT director Zinatullo Ismoilov says the SMT channel is on the air eleven hours a day: from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm; and from 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm.  “The channel can be viewed in Dushanbe and in the districts of Roudaki, Varzob, Vahdat, Hisor, Shahrinav, Yovon and Fayzobod,” Ismoilov noted.

We will recall that head of the Committee for TV and Radio-broadcasting under the Government of Tajikistan, Asadullo Rahmonov, has offered Simoi Mustaqili Tojikiston to change its transmitting wave.  He remarked this at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 13.  

Rahmonov noted that the frequency used by SMT to transmit its signals belongs to the private TV station legally, but the TV station of the Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan also uses this frequency to rebroadcast programs of Russia’s Channel One.  “Therefore, the stations cause interference for each other,” he said.

Simoi Mustaqili Tojikiston was founded in 2007 but since 2009, SMT and the TV station of the Russian military base have used the same frequency to transmit their signals, and therefore, they have caused interference for each other.