Iran urged to loosen hold on BBC Persia

According to Iran's own broadcaster, Press TV, Iran's Majlis Research Center has proposed loosening the restrictions on foreign media outlets "working against the interests of the Islamic Republic."

Following an analysis of the tactics employed by the British Broadcasting Corporation's Persian-language channel, the Institute for Political Studies in Iran's Parliament Research Center tipped off the government about its critical approach toward such channels.

Iran has claimed the channel is attempting to recruit Iranians for "espionage and psychological warfare".

"The public is concerned that the establishment of BBC Persian is in line with the intervening and opportunist policies of the British government in domestic affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran," said an Iranian official before the launch of the channel in October.

The report given by the institute proposed that launching such networks would be a large step in undertaking "soft overthrow projects", stating that BBC Persian is more subtle in this endeavor than the US-backed VOA.

The report went on to discuss the recent advances in global technology throughout the world today including the wide prominence of the Internet usage among Iran's youth "in an effort to caution the Iranian government."

"In today's world, a full-scale media war is taking place between Iran and the West," read the report.

The report urged the Islamic Republic to use this opportunity to fight "foreign movements aimed at toppling the government."

Pointing to countless Internet websites and web proxies, the report said, "Preventing the establishment of satellite channels is not an effective method to break the Iranian audience's connection with such media."

The Majlis report called for "the launch of rival channels and incorporation of as much information content as possible" to neutralize the effect of anti-Islamic Republic media.

"The government should not conceive NGO's and Persian-language channels as a threat."

The report put forward a proposal to the Iranian government to grant such channels as BBC Persian the permission to work in Iran, within the guidelines of the country's constitution.

The institute further demanded the government maintains vigilance in an effort to prevent the cited media from carrying out their "soft toppling projects" in the country.

Another Persian Language International Broadcaster

Press TV reported that Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered Iran a joint media satellite.

“The Afghan president called for the development of cooperation between the two countries' media to exchange experiences.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tajikistan's Emomali Rahmon, and Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai are said to join on March 21st in a meeting of “Persian speaking countries.” The three countries are said to be working on the launch of a television channel dedicated to the broadcast of programs in Persian, “providing an authentic source of information for all interested in the culture.”

“One of the most important duties of the independent regional media is to confront western media for censoring real news in eastern countries" explained head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Ezzatollah Zarghami.

The three also agreed to "increase reciprocal economic, security, and political ties, and to further discuss the creation of a Persian-speaking union."

"Online and in Jail"

The Committee to Protect Journalists is reporting that 45 percent of journalists that were put in jail in 2008 were web-based reporters or bloggers. Let's put this another way: you are more likely to be jailed for being a journalist if you publish your reporting via the World Wide Web than any other medium. Wow. So much for hoping that the Internet could provide a cover for those trying to report the news in countries that, well, don't exactly welcome a free and independent press.

The VOA's reporting of the findings highlights the most egregious violators: "Among the countries singled out for their hostile press environments were Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, Zimbabwe and Cuba." This is especially interesting given the recent cuts in funding for American broadcasting to Russia, China's pledge to sink billions in creating English and Arabic-language international broadcasters to compete with CNN, the BBC and Al-Jazeera, Iran's recent crackdown on BBC Persian and most recently the GAO's report that found that, despite the $500 million that the US government has devoted to broadcasting radio and TV to Cuba, "Radio and TV Martí’s audience size is small, with less than 2 percent of respondents to telephone surveys since 2003 reporting that they had tuned in to Radio or TV Martí during the past week."

Thus, I'll ask again, is the Internet and its associated revolution in communication technologies actually opening up previously close societies, or is this further evidence of governments demonstrating their ability to control the flow of information despite it? 2008's crackdown on online journalism is further evidence of concern that governments are indeed winning the war over who is in control of the World Wide Web. On that note, I'm signing off!

BBC Persian: Just in Time?

So far, nothing but praise for BBC Persian, unless of course you ask the Iranian government. Here is a good article outlining how the strength of BBC Persian will likely be its higher level of professionalism (also, the article has an interesting take on the overly political nature of US broadcasting into Iran):

Mehrdad Khalili, a journalist and university lecturer, told state-run Radio Goftogu that the BBC Persian TV employees belong to a post-revolutionary generation of journalists who aspire to a higher level of professionalism than currently exists in the domestic media.Khalili said some of the TV journalists now working for BBC Persian were active during what he calls the "golden era" of Iranian media that followed the election of reformist president Mohammad Khatami in 1997. Others come from state radio and television. "These journalists cannot tolerate [working under] very tenuous and frustrating financial conditions and the tremendous pressures coming from inside and outside the media," he said. "Nor can they forget the media's golden era". During the Khatami years, an era of growing political freedoms, dozens of newspapers were published, employing hundreds of young journalists.

And, here is an article outlining how BBC Persian was received amongst Iranian bloggers (keep in mind the source!). Not much of a shocker here -- most of the bloggers surveyed think that BBC Persian is a breath of fresh air:

The absence of a [Persian-language] media outlet [outside Iran] which can disseminate news professionally can be felt. For the past few days I've been thinking about why the BBC can't fulfil this role. The British know exactly when to do something. The BBC Persian TV has been launched at a time that the Iranian people are tired of the Los Angeles-based [Persian-language] TV channels, the Iranian Voice and Vision, and the VOA. Have no doubt that BBC Persian TV will have a bigger impact than one can expect.