BIASED IRANIAN RADIO AND TELEVISION LOST ALL CREDIBILITY
TEHRAN 10 Apr. (IPS) Iranian newspapers on Thursday reported the fall of Baghdad according to their political affiliations, with conservatives-controlled publications keeping a low profile and those that back the embattled President announcing the news with big, bold titles, reporting on the Iraqi people celebrating the humiliating end of the Iraqi dictator.
"End of Saddam’s Regime", front paged the pro-conservative, but moderate daily "Entekhab", which also published a picture of one of the many Saddam Hoseyn’s statue being brought down in Baghdad.
"Saddam’s Regime Collapsed", announced the mass circulation "Hamshahri", producing photographs showing people smashing the head of the tyrant’s statue, toppled by American tanks.
In their commentaries, the remaining of the independent press concentrated on the aftermath of the fall of Mr. Hoseyn, wondering if the American’s quick victory in Iraq would not "tempt" Washington to repeat the Iraqi adventure in other nations of the region or the American war machine would stop in the streets of Baghdad?
But major conservative papers, in titles that have been concocted in the
Office of the leader, attributed the capture of Baghdad to a "secret deal
worked out between the Iraqi dictator and his American counterpart George W.
Bush.
In fact, while the hard line Keyhan, one of the mouthpieces of Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic’s wrote under a big title: "Bush-Saddam Game Ended", Jomhoori Eslami, that belongs to Mr. Khameneh’i, ignored the event, highlighting instead an interview with Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al Hakim, the leader of the Tehran-based and backed Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SAIRI) saying "We Shall Confront American Military Presence in Iraq".
"Iraqi Leaders Quit Baghdad Under American-Russian Agreement", said "Resalat", another conservative paper which speaks for the Bazaar oligarchy, printing a picture of one of Saddam’s statues, its head covered with an American flag.
But while the print media continued reporting the Iraqi war according to the original line of conduct, the leader-controlled Radio and Television that from the beginning of the conflict had adopted a deliberate pro-Iraqi regime attitude, lost the minimum of credibility it used to have with the public.
"After having for weeks bombarding Iranians with utterly biased presentation of the events in favour of the hated Saddam regime and against the coalition forces, "assuring" the audience that American and British soldiers were "engulfed" in the Iraqi "quagmire" and retreating in front of Iraqi army fire power and popular resistance, the Voice and Visage (Iranian Radio and Television) was visibly caught "red hand", commented one senior Iranian political analyst.
Not knowing what to show or what to say in face of the scenes of public jubilation, dancing around downed states of the tyrant and befriending with American GI’s in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country, decision-makers at the Organisation decided to point to other side issues, showing hospitals filled with wounded civilians, destructions caused by American bombardments or denouncing American plans for the control of the region’s oil.
"Obviously, this deliberate one sided reporting, a line dictated by former president Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who supervise the public media’s policy, ignoring the general public’s sentiments which is opposed to Saddam, produced a backlash and backfired on the regime itself, one journalist with the VVIR told Iran Press Service.
Contrary to the Radio and Television, the official Iranian news agency IRNA had a much more neutral attitude in reporting the Iraqi conflict.
With scores of correspondents on the field, the Agency, despite "red lines" imposed on it by the ruling conservatives, not only was far ahead of rivals in the region, -- except for some international Arab television stations such as the Qatari-based "Al Jazira" --, but had also its own "scoops". ENDS IRAQ MEDIA REACTION 10403