Iran media update

Iran media update for 28 June 2009. "In Iran, the Persian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty uses several different radio frequencies and the Internet, while Voice of America’s Persian television service claims to reach more than 15 million viewers. Accurate audience measures are hard to come by in places like Iran. But the fact that Tehran spends a huge amount of money jamming these channels and blocking their websites tells us something. These broadcast services are not well known to Americans, because of a 1948 law that forbids the domestic dissemination of all material created for foreign audiences. But this law is now moot, because like everyone else, Americans can access these services online. Do so, and you will see that, contrary to what many assume, these channels do not merely broadcast US government propaganda. Nor do they follow CNN and other 'global' media in hopscotching between hot spots. On the contrary, these channels maintain a consistent, steady presence, outwitting the censors and keeping brave reporters on the ground, so that the people living in those countries can know what is going on, even when the whole world is not watching." Martha Bayles, Boston Globe, 28 June 2009.
"Ironically, the Iranian government’s heavy-handed media crackdown — the Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that more than 40 journos have been arrested in Iran since the election — has spurred Iranians to get even more of their news from foreign sources than usual. U.S.-based Iranian satcasters — many of which beam from Hollywood — have long flooded Iranians with everything from anti-regime political diatribes to non-stop musicvids and sports, but the clampdown on the media operations of Iran’s opposition movement left Iranians little choice but to turn to the likes of the BBC for news of events." Ali Jaafar, Variety, 26 June 2009.
"Al-Jazeera, the still-popular Qatari pan-Arab satellite television channel, is concentrating mostly on the official Iranian version of events, while trying to have it both ways. Its English-language edition includes occasional close-ups of Iranian demonstrators and victims of the regime, along with some reprinted columns critical of Tehran. But the Arabic programs and website -- the ones that matter in the region -- almost never contain such material, instead giving pride of place to Iranian government allegations of foreign-media or other nefarious interference in Iran's internal affairs." David Pollock and Mohammad Yaghi, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 26 June 2009.
"The TV 'experts' on the bbc, cnn and al jazeera are for the most part, completely out of touch, with the facts: this is way beyond ahmadi, the supreme leader and rafsanjani. Many of the Western press are just as out of touch: I recommend the Guardian from the UK if you must read something." Iranian alum of an American university, Leesean.net, 23 June 2009.
"The Iranian authorities and their lackeys in the state-controlled media are trying to launch a counter-offensive on the Neda phenomenon, writes Robert Tait. ... 'Javan, another pro-regime paper, blamed ... my friend and recently expelled BBC correspondent Jon Leyne. It claims that Leyne hired 'thugs' to shoot her so he could then make a documentary film.'" News blog, The Guardian, 24 June 2009.
"The doctor who tried to save an Iranian protester as she bled to death on a street in Tehran has told the BBC of her final moments." BBC News, 25 June 2009.
"Out of fear that history might repeat itself, the authoritarian governments of China, Cuba and Burma have been selectively censoring the news this month of Iranian crowds braving government militias on the streets of Tehran to demand democratic reforms." Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post, 27 June 2009.
"I'm curious to see how the left responds to this from the realist realist in American today (and also unofficial adviser to Barack Obama) Brent Scowcroft: 'The US has intelligence agents in Iran but it is not clear if they are providing help to the protest movement there, a former US national security adviser has told Al Jazeera. ... ' Of all places to say something so foolish, Scowcroft choose Al Jazeera for maximum effect." Michael Goldfarb, The Blog, The Weekly Standard, 25 June 2009.
"During the [1979] revolution, news of protests, strikes and deaths was telephoned abroad by resistance networks, and broadcast back into the country by the BBC World Service and other short-wave radio stations." Paul Taylor, Reuters, 23 June 2009. See also Iran satellite update and Iran cyber update for 28 June. Posted: 28 Jun 2009