Iran looking for fair media coverage:
MPs lash out at IRIB for `biased' coverage of Iraqi crisis
Tehran, April 7, IRNA -- The US-British campaign against Iraq was
concurrent with the Nowrouz (New Iranian Year) holidays in Iran.
While people expected the best from the state TV, their joy
watching the programs with the family was often marred by feelings of
worry and anxiety from streaming news, analyses and moving subtitles
on minute-by-minute reports about the Iraqi crisis.
Still, many believe that the TV, the Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting (IRIB), has been to a large extent in favor of the Iraqi
regime in covering the crisis, with several others regretting that the
institution was turning a blind eye to the fact that Iraq had imposed
an eight-year bloody war on Iran.
Such objections were most obvious in speeches at the Parliament
(Majlis) on Sunday when the deputies voiced concern that the IRIB,
only answerable to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei,
was defying Iran's positions of neutrality toward the crisis.
The Persian-language newspaper `Aftab-E Yazd' on Monday quoted
Elahe Koulaei, the rapporteur of the Majlis National Security
and Foreign Policy Commission, as saying that the IRIB was not
adhering to Iran's neutrality in the war, warning that this could harm
Iran's national interests.
Koulaei, talking to reporters after Parliament's open session,
said that the Iraqis had fallen victim to the wrong policies of their
President Saddam Hussain, stressing that the IRIB must, however,
consider Iran's national interests regarding the war.
"Although we understand what a suffering the Iraqi people are
going through, we must prioritize defending the rights of the
Iranians," the Aftab-E Yazd quoted her as saying.
"Iran's priority regarding the Iraqi crisis is the common
interests of the Iranian people, and we should not forget our own
people for the sake of the Iraqis."
Koulaei said the Iraqi regime is intentionally taking the war to
the cities for propaganda purposes, and called on the IRIB to reflect
the realities of the crisis without resorting to selective approaches.
"There is no reason for us to support the Iraqi President Saddam
Hussain and the Baathist regime, because the Iraqi regime is the same
that waged a war on Iran using the support of the US, EU and the
Soviet Union," she said.
Also, the English-language newspaper `Iran Daily' quoted Koulaei
as saying that she had told President Mohammad Khatami last week that
"the IRIB's mode of coverage of war developments is problematic for
Iran at the international level".
"The IRIB only reflects on the number of bombs that have hit Iraq
and the number of casualties. There is no diversity in its war
coverage. This approach is one-sided and many other war-related
developments are ignored," the Iran Daily quoted the deputy as
saying.
Koulaei further said that the IRIB must follow the ratification
of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), stressing that the
council had convened "in order to defend the rights of Iranians and
not the interests of Iraq".
In related news, a deputy from Qazvin Nasser Qavami on Sunday
lashed out at the IRIB for what he said was "slanted coverage of the
Iraqi crisis", stressing that IRIB's performance was against Iran's
officially declared stance toward the issue.
The Aftab-E Yazd quoted Qavami as urging the institution to review
its news service policy on Iraq, and underscoring the need that it
reports the events in Iraq without siding with any of the clashing
parties.
The daily also quoted deputy from Lanjan Ali-Mohammad Namazi as
saying that IRIB's analyses on the war in Iraq depict the developments
as if Iraq is going to win the war.
He said the audience are very likely to believe that Iraq is going
to win the war over the US-British troops once exposed to the news and
comments of the IRIB.
Meanwhile, an official with the institution on Sunday rejected the
critical viewpoints by the deputies, stressing that IRIB's coverage of
the war had been approved by relevant officials.
The English-language newspaper `Tehran Times' quoted Ezzatollah
Zarghami, the IRIB deputy director for parliamentary affairs, as
saying that the services of the institution complied with the
ratification of the SNSC's War Committee, stressing that the claims
over IRIB's biased news and programs on the war cannot be testified.
Zarghami further said that the IRIB always mentions the atrocities
that the Iraqi regime perpetrated against Iranians in the 1980-88 war
with Iran in its reports and analyses of the US-British invasion of
that country.
AA/AR
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