Iran president's Christmas message

Dec 24 2008

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran will give a message of seasonal goodwill on Christmas Day as an alternative to the Queen's traditional broadcast.

The Channel 4 broadcast will not be scheduled at the same time as the Queen's message on BBC and ITV as in previous years but will go out at 7.15pm.

A spokesman for the broadcaster said the message is a spiritual one and includes the president's wishes for seasonal goodwill.

This is not the first time the channel has courted controversy with its choice of speaker. In 2006 a fully-veiled British-born Muslim woman used the message to attack Jack Straw for his criticism of the niqab (face veil) earlier the same year.

It is the broadcaster's 16th alternative message since Quentin Crisp delivered the first in 1993.

Channel 4 head of news and current affairs Dorothy Byrne said: "As the leader of one of the most powerful states in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad's views are enormously influential."

The message, which the president has given in Farsi, will be subtitled in English.

In it he will congratulate followers of Jesus Christ and the people of Britain on the anniversary of Jesus's birth.

He speaks about society's problems and crises being rooted in its rejection of the message of God's prophets including Jesus. He also criticises the "indifference of some governments and powers towards the teachings of the divine prophets, especially those of Jesus Christ".

But he will say that "the general will of nations" is now calling for a return to "human values".